


Oh, Brother

by heyimal_ex



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Hurt Sans, Protective Papyrus, brotherly ofc, but they’re there, evil gaster, he just wants his brother to be okay, heavily based on handplates, hes been through a lot okay, i put my own spin on it tho kinda, no incest bYE, nothing too much the descriptions aren’t that graphic, really focuses on Papyrus & Sans relationship, sans used to be a test subject but just Sans, this is pretty much a written version of Handplates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-06-15 10:51:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15411318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyimal_ex/pseuds/heyimal_ex
Summary: Papyrus had always seen himself as the stronger brother. Of course - why wouldn’t he when his lazy brother, Sans, spends 90% of the day sleeping in his room and the other 10% doing god-knows-what? But when the secrets of time-lines and what Sans has been keeping on his shoulders are revealed, Papyrus makes a promise both to himself and to his brother that Sans wouldn’t fight this battle on his own anymore. Papyrus was going to help his older brother, no matter what.





	1. Chapter 1

The crunching of snow beneath feet echoed loudly through the forest. The sound was accompanied by two voices belonging to a pair of skeletons, with one loud and dramatic and the other mellow and even. Both, however, seemed equally as happy and light. 

“i don’t know why you would think junior jumble is harder, bro.” Sans laughed softly, hands buried into his sweatshirt pockets as he glanced over at his much-taller brother. “it’s so easy.”

“NO IT’S NOT!” Papyrus immediately responded, glaring at his brother in annoyance. “I’LL NEVER UNDERSTAND YOU, SANS! AT LEAST THE HUMAN AGREED WITH ME.”

Sans snorted softly, shrugging with a soft grin. “i guess you’re right....where is the human, anyways?” He glanced over his shoulder, but saw nothing in sight behind them. It was slightly weird - Sans couldn’t remember a timeline in which the human wasn’t here by now. Then again, when you’ve gone through the same five days over and over again like he has, things just kinda tended to blend together in a big, useless mesh of memories. At first he tried to keep track of each timeline, but he quickly realized it was a fruitless effort and settled for just keeping track of the number. Perhaps it was helping to keep him from going insane, and maybe it wasn’t - he’s not sure. 

He shrugged and turned back to his brother. 

“I’M SURE THEY’RE JUST HELD UP ON ONE OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS’ AMAZING PUZZLES!”

“hmm...yeah paps, i guess you could say you’re really-“

“DON’T YOU DARE SANS-“

“puzzling them.”

Papyrus groaned as Sans chuckled, finger-guns falling to his side. That feeling of ‘something is wrong’ grew and grew inside his non-existent gut, yet he was so ready to push it aside to enjoy this rare, happy moment with the monster that mattered most to him in this world. 

That fake reality he was craving in his head, however, was shattered when he heard the steps creeping closer and closer behind them. There was no mistaking the slow, methodical timing. 

“hey pap?” He said, not allowing for his cool facade to drop just yet. He smiled at his brother and referenced to the empty space in front of him. “can you step in front of me real quick? i wanna check something on the back of your cape.”

At the mention of the idea that something may be wrong with his beloved scarf, Papyrus immediately scurried forward, thanking the other for being vigilante and noticing the important things. Sans muttered out a soft “yeah, sure” but turned his back to the other instead, earning a confused mumble from Pap...until the younger happened to lift his head and connect eyes with what Sans was glaring at. 

In front of them stood the child, but they weren’t...the child. Their eyes glowed a bright red, complimenting their rose dusted cheeks and the smile of pure insanity that spread across their face. The knife that rested in their hands glowed bright in the light reflected off the ceiling, and Sans was relatively surprised to see that it wasn’t already speckled with light dust particles. He couldn’t think about that now. Their advancements were clear - just because they hadn’t struck yet didn’t mean they wouldn’t. 

“pretty early to start doing this, huh, kid?” He chuckled softly, crossing his arms and keeping his eyes trained on the being in front of him. Next to him, Papyrus stuttered, confused to begin with and only becoming more so with what Sans said. 

“TOO EARLY TO START...W-WHAT? HUMAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Y-YOU SHOULD PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN! IT’S NOT SAFE TO-“ he took a step forward, but Sans immediately stuck out his arm, gently motioning for the other to stay. 

“please, papyrus.” He murmured, head down and eyes dark. “you love me, right? you trust me?”

Papyrus was thrown off by the questions, but a wide smile spread across his face almost immediately afterwards. “OF COURSE! I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART, BROTHER, AND I TRUST YOU!”

“good.” Sans nodded softly and took his eyes off the child for half a second to connect eyes with Papyrus again. “stay behind me then.”

The taller of the two skeletons opened his mouth to object, but he couldn’t deny the desperation in his older brothers eyes. It was almost like he was begging, and Sans never begs. Papyrus decided to trust his judgement and stay behind the other.

“Aww!” The child in front of them cooed, spinning the knife on the tip of their finger with a gruesome smile. “What a cute interaction. You know, Sans, I’ve been thinking-“

“great.” Sans interrupted with a chuckle, although the anger boiling behind his eyes was undeniable. “i love it when you do that.”

“I’ve been thinking about the fact that I’ve been growing bored lately. I’ve done so much, seen so much, killed so much - not that you haven’t, of course,” Papyrus physically froze behind Sans. What...did that mean? “And I realized something. There’s still one thing - one thing I haven’t done yet!”

“oh really?” Sans face stayed hard and the smile that was typically stuck to his face began to fall. Papyrus thought it was probably the first time he had ever seen Sans look so serious and honest, but he didn’t comment for the time being. He wasn’t sure what was going on, and he knew he had to listen. “what is it that you haven’t done yet, Chara?”

“I’ve killed Papyrus with you watching more times than you can count. But have I ever killed you...with Papyrus watching?”

Before the younger skeleton could even react, there were two Gaster Blasters hovering above his head, pointed straight towards the small child, charged and ready to fire. Sans eyes was bursting with blue, so much that it looked like it would be painful. Papyrus had never seen it so extreme. His brother also seemed to be shaking, but whether that was from anger or pain or something else, he couldn’t tell. 

“I-I’M SORRY!” He interjected, voice raised high as he regarded the Gaster Blasters above him. How long had Sans been able to do that? Those were ridiculously big, and looked as though they’d take much more effort than Sans would ever have the energy to put forth. “I-I HONESTLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON, BUT I MUST ASK THAT YOU DON’T KILL MY BROTHER! I WOULDN’T LIKE THAT VERY MUCH!”

The child laughed, and for a quick moment, their eyes glowed a bright red. “Ah, yes, Papyrus! You have no idea what’s going on! Allow me to fill you in!”

Sans snarled and the Gaster Blasters pulled back, ready to fire. “don’t you da-!”

Before he could finish his sentence, the child in front of him did a slight twist of the head, and he went flying. His body slammed into the trees to the left of them and immediately crumpled to the ground, the forest silent - with the exception of Papyrus’ screams. 

“BROTHER! BROTHER, BROTHER, OH MY GOD-“ he ran towards the other immediately, not even noticing when the one line of defense Sans had set up crumpled away into nothingness. He skidded to a halt besides his brother, tears filling his eyes as he turned Sans over and immediately choked back his tears as he stared in horror at the damage that had been done. There was a long crack running from the back of Sans’ skull and stopping right above his eye, thankfully not seeming to puncture it. Several, smaller cracks branched off from the single larger ones, some tiny parts of his skull actually chipping away and revealing the black underneath. He was obviously completely out cold, however, and Papyrus was quick to pull him into a tight hug. 

“SANS! SANS, YOU’RE OKAY! I’VE GOT YOU! YOU’RE ALRIGHT, SANS, YOU’RE ALRIGHT, COME ON BROTHER, COME BACK TO ME...” he let out a few weak sobs as he pressed his hands tightly against the others back, closing his eyes and allowing for his vision to blank over with orange. He funneled all of his magic into that one moment, into his precious brother lying weakly before him, into the one thing he loved in this world even more than being the Royal Guard or spaghetti. 

He heard the human behind him laugh, and he found himself slowly turning towards them, although still being careful to keep Sans tucked against his chest. His instincts screamed to keep him as far away and as safe from the world as possible. He didn’t like that bubbling feeling. 

“Why would you do that, human?” The taller of the two choked out, his eye glowing as more and more of his healing magic poured its way into Sans. Soft pinging noises filled the air as his 0.0001/1 HP was gradually replenished. “WHY WOULD YOU HURT HIM? HE’S DONE NOTHING TO YOU! HE WAS JUST PROTECTING ME! WHY...? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?”

The human before him let out a laugh - a thick, emotionless, sick laugh. “You really don’t know anything, do you? Sans has kept it all hidden from you in attempts to protect your precious little innocence? Well...” The eyes of the child were once again flooded with a crimson red color, and Papyrus found himself screaming “STOP! NOT AGAIN!” as he desperately held onto his brother, wishing with every fragment of his being that he could keep the other safe. He HAD to keep the other safe, that was his job, he couldn’t-

But he was no match for the raw, powerful magic the human obviously had. They twisted their head to the left in a snap, and this time, it was Papyrus that went flying, separating from his brother in two seconds flat. He landed on the floor with a loud “OOF”, dizzied by the impact of his skull against the frozen hard ground. Shaky arms moved on their own, supporting his body into a sitting position with a sense of unbridled urgency. Thankfully, he landed in a way where his back took the majority, and the thump to his head was just enough to disorient him for a few short moments. He didn’t majorly injure his skull or his limbs, although he was definitely going to be sore all over for a little while. 

He didn’t let himself think about it for long. His brother still needed him. As he pushed himself up to be fully standing, however, he was immediately shoved right back down, an unseen force working against him. He watched with horror as bones rocketed up from the ground, spraying snow and ice all around. They encased him, now trapped in a tight cage of sorts. Unlike his own contraptions, the bars were so tightly together that even a bit of wriggling through them wouldn’t set him free. He couldn’t get out unless he attacked the bars, which he immediately began attempting to do, all the while keeping his eyes trained on the boy laying limp on the ground in front of him. “SANS!” He cried his brothers name, desperate to make him conscious. “YOU NEED TO WAKE UP! BROTHER! BROTHER, PLEASE!”

The child laughed, walking over to the older of the two and dangling the knife over his cracked head. Papyrus watched with horror as they let it slip through their fingers, looser and looser until...the knife was dropped, and they caught it once more mere inches from Sans eye. A hit like that would’ve instantly turned him to dust. 

“No...” the child mumbled as Papyrus sobbed, reaching his hands out between the bones desperately, needing to save his brother. The humans face turned up in a sneer at that. 

“Oh, the amount of times I’ve seen your brother do that for you...how about a history lesson, Papyrus? I want to have fun, and I have a feeling watching Sans die will only be about a thousand times better if you know every last detail. So settle down - it’s story time!”

With that, the child began to talk. The timelines, Frisk, Chara, Sans remembering it all, despite everyone else in the Undergrounds’ inability to - everything. They spoke of everything. With each new detail, with each new explanation of how Sans was slowly breaking from the inside out as he watched everything he loved be ripped away from him, with each new reiteration of how ALONE Sans really was despite being the - apparently - most selfless one, Papyrus only cried harder, more and more desperate to get to his brother laying across from them. This was too much, too much information and too much to process and too much pressure put on his brother, too much, too much-

Chara explained everything Sans had seen, down to the very last detail. “He still has nightmares every night.” The child smiled widely, glancing over their shoulder towards the skeleton that laid in a pile on the ground. “Every night, he dreams of you dying, dying himself, and killing me. Over, and over, and over.” The kid laughed so hard tears dotted the edges of their eyes, and with shaking hands they moved to wipe them away. “He asks himself every day if he can even be a DECENT monster if he’s killed someone so many times! The scenes, the imagery, what he’s done, they burn themselves into his mind. And the resets! He wakes up every morning wondering if he’s in a new world! If you’ve forgotten everything and if he’s just as alone as before! Again!”

“STOP.” Papyrus whimpered, hands still working at the bars and sending attack after attack on them. His attempts just weren’t working, and frustration bubbled up inside him. 

“What? Don’t like to hear me talk about your broken form of a brother?” Character laughed, shaking their head. “He can’t even look at knifes the same. Every time he does, he sees your dust on them. Why do you think he jumps when someone suddenly touches him?”

“STOP!” Papyrus repeated, voice hard. “IT ISN’T YOUR PLACE TO BE TELLING ME THIS! IT’S HIS!” Papyrus aggressively swiped at the tears that were blubbering down his face, collapsing as he realized the bone attempts weren’t going to get him out of the cage. He had to think of something else, and quick. 

“Oh, please.” Chara laughed with the shake of their head, swinging their knife around happily. “As if your brother would tell you everything about him. It would hurt you too much, and he took this burden on his own - why would he place it on your shoulders?” The child did a horrible impression of Sans, slouching and shoving their hands into imaginary pockets. “I won’t tell him.” They growled, making their voice deep and glancing off to the side with furrowed eyebrows. “I’m not gonna ruin Pappy’s innocence for my own shitty issues.” They straightened back out with another cruel laugh. 

“WHY...?” Papyrus choked out, looking at the other. He was shocked by the humans words. They were being...so cruel. So unbelievably cruel. Papyrus knew there was bad in this world, yeah, but he never knew there was quite this much, especially this much bad that could be targeted towards someone like Sans. His brother definitely had his faults, and a plethora of them, but he was good - he cared where it mattered, and he was undeniably passionate about protecting those close to him. Why did someone like that get targeted by someone with such mean intentions? “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?”

“Honestly?” Chara smiled, seemingly completely and utterly excited at the question. “I’m glad you asked! At first, I just liked killing. It was fun, watching the shock and pain on people’s face and hearing the wails of sorrow that echoed out every time i killed one of you. But then? I noticed something.” With the overly-complex words they used, words that a child their age should never know, their sing-songy demeanor deepened, twirling around on their toes and singing the words. They only paused their show to point towards Sans with their knife, the smile never leaving their features. 

“That weird, short skeleton in the back. At first, he sobbed. At first, he was a wreck. And then he slowly seemed less surprised - hurt, yes, but almost as if he’d seen it before. I had suspicions, so I checked them, and I was right. For some reason, Sans can remember. He can remember every timeline, every detail.” The child looked off to the side with a smile, Pride bubbling in their eyes “although, maybe he doesn’t really remember them now. I suppose all of these blend together at a certain point.” The human gave an exaggerated shrug and looked back at Papyrus. “Sans remembers, and he’s got a pretty strong resolve. And I immediately knew what I wanted my new game to be!” A deep laugh accompanied the bone-rattling words, eyes glowing even redder than they had before as a groan echoed through the room, Sans moving to pick himself back up. “I want to see. See how many times it takes for Sans to crack. For him to go completely crazy, lose all hope he ever had and fall down. I’m probably only a few off. He’s depressed, that’s a good start - but the issue, Papyrus, is you. He’s too damn resolved on saving you. So even if he doesn’t give a shit about himself, he still gives a world of shits about you. It’s pathetic, really.”

“i think that’s a little rude.” A sudden, new voice joined the conversation, both Chara and Papyrus looking up to find Sans standing tall, a blue flame ignited brightly in his eyes. “who gave you the right to my life story?”

Chars shrugged, turning away from Papyrus to fully face Sans. They wasted no time, swiping forward with their knife outstretched, ready to kill the other in one fatal swing. Sans, of course, cleverly side-stepped it, glancing at Papyrus to make sure the other was still okay. He let out a soft sigh of relief when he saw no obvious injuries on the other, sharply moving to the left to avoid another wound to the side. 

“Now this is where it gets interesting.” Chara laughed, swinging and stabbing forward the entire time they talked, watching as Sans moved last second. “You’re not trying to fight me, just sidestepping. Why is that?”

Sans shrugged, throwing his arms around the back of his head as he teleported sharply, appearing right in front of Papyrus’ cage. “of course not.” Yawning and stretching his arms out above his head, he smiled as the sounds of several pops echoed through the room. “both me and you- oh! that one was close!” He chuckled softly and shrugged. “both me and you know i’d never hurt you in front of my bro. he’s too good to see something like that.”

“So what’s gonna happen?” Chara laughed. This was amazing to watch. “We both know that if you don’t kill me, I’ll just keep attacking, and eventually, you’ll get way too tired to dodge.”

Sans smiled softly and shrugged, hiding the panic he was feeling inside. “crossing bridges when i get to ‘em, brat. it’s what i do best.”

In this moment, neither the child or Sans were watching Papyrus closely, although the taller of the two skeletons took note of how his brother was careful to keep the fight away from his cage when he was able to. Papyrus shuffled around in his back pocket, fetching his small broken phone and immediately hurrying to mute it. As soon as he was sure no sound would emit from it, and being extra sure to keep his head foreword so it wouldn’t look suspicious if the human looked towards him, he pressed down on Undyne’s contact name and felt the vibrations of it ringing in his hand. 

He found himself focusing again, knowing Undyne just had to hear the fighting and then Alphys would track the call and they would come in a heartbeat. He prayed they would be quick enough, as sweat was starting to bead at the very top of San’s head as he continued to dodge every hit. 

Fighting was one thing, and it definitely drained him, but it also gave him the upper-hand of killing. When he killed, the kid would Load - meaning he was full of energy again. Dodging took up magic, as well, but the difference here was that he didn’t get the luxury of being re-energized with a Load. 

“I would kill me, Sans.” Chara laughed softly, taking a step back for a moment as they admired the being, hunched over himself slightly and trying to calm his erratic breathing. “If you don’t, it could be over for you soon.”

Sans straightened back up, wiping his forehead and forcing the old, sarcastic smile. For the first time, Papyrus noticed how incredibly fake it was. It was an eye opening experience to watch his brother - the same brother he had spent his life stressing over the weakness and fragility of - move so quickly and avoid being hurt so well. “then go ahead and kill me. you’ll just reset so you know the other outcomes. you’ll always find a way to entertain yourself.” He laughed softly, shoving his hands into his pockets and meeting the glint of Chara’s crazy eyes. “actually, i have a question. what comes next?”

The small human laughed. “What do you mean?”

“after i go insane? i’m the only anomaly, right? and i’m sure you want to know why i remember every timeline?”

Chara tensed, And so did Papyrus, watching his brother - his brothers bravery, resilience and amazing lack of laziness. “Of course I want to know.” Chara whispered. “Do you know?”

Sans laughed softly before shrugging. “Beats me, brat. You don’t think that if I knew, I would try to change it? I would give anything to be clueless about these timelines. Sadly, though, I’m just as in the dark as you are.” He dodged another attack, smile falling from his face for half a millisecond before being hastily replaced. 

“We’ll see about that.” The small child growled and stood back, panting. For a moment, Sans thought that maybe the kid was actually tired - before they shot forward, knife slicing across his cheek before he was able to react like normal.

“SANS!” Papyrus screamed loudly as he clenched at the bars and looked at his brother, watching his HP fall down to .6. Sans groaned softly and held his cheek, looking down at the red that covered his hand. Wait...red? Why was Sans leaking out red stuff? 

“Why do you bleed?” Chara asked softly, grinning. “How can you teleport? Why can you only have 1 HP? There’s so much about you, Sans. So much I want to know. I want to dissect you, little by little.”

“Ew, kid.” Sans laughed weakly as he pushed himself up, wiping his sleeve and staining his sweatshirt red in the process. “What about you? You’re not in Frisk this time. What’s up with that?”

Chara scoffed. “You think you get to ask me questions when you’re getting killed by me?”

“You also have my brother in a cage.” Sans snarled, looking at Papyrus. “Pap, stand back.” He said, voice immediately going gentle and even a little bit shaky. He snapped his fingers and a Gaster Blaster - even bigger than the ones before, amazingly enough - appeared and singed the top of the cage. Sadly, however, it didn’t give. 

Sans sighed. “i figured as much, but j won’t act as if that’s not weird. you’ve never had powers before, kid. what’s up with that?”

The child smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Nah.” Sans shrugged, sidestepping again. His face was now drenched in sweat. “Cause I got a clue already. You’re avoiding walls, and the two times I’ve gone to grab you, my hands gone right through you.” He grinned slightly. “I think-“ he swiped forward, a dangerous move, since they immediately moved forward to hurt him. He was able to swipe a hand in their direction, watching it go right through their skin and immediately pull back. 

A smile danced across his face. “i’ve never seen anything like that before, and trust me, i’ve seen a lot. are you getting weak, or something?”

Chara groaned, shaking their head. “You’ve always been fast. Smart, even - although I’m not sure someone who wasted their life away on the couch and being a burden to their brother can ever be considered smart.”

“THAT’S NOT TRUE!” Papyrus yelled suddenly, and both heads turned towards him, Sans eyes wide in surprise and Chara’s lips upturned with amusement. “THAT’S NOT TRUE! MY BROTHER IS NOT A BURDEN! SURE...MAYBE HE’S A LITTLE LAZY, BUT HE’S ALWAYS PROTECTED ME! HE’S ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR ME! HE’S AMAZING, A-AND TODAY ONLY PROVED THAT! THE STRUGGLE HE’S GONE THROUGH TO KEEP ME SAFE? HOW CAN THAT BE A BURDEN?!”

Chara laughed, taking the opportunity to move forward. Sans gasped and moved back a little late, stumbling over his own feet and falling down so that his back slammed against the cage Papyrus was in. 

.5 health. 

Papyrus screamed in fear and reached desperately for his brother, grabbing both of his hands and squeezing them as tightly as he could. Sans returned the gesture before hopping up, panting heavily now.

“Uh-oh, Sansy.” Chara smiled. “Times almost up! What’re you gonna do? Kill me? Show your brother how much of a ruthless killer you really are?”

“i...i’ll...” Sans’ eyes darted around nervously, hands shaking as he tried to figure out what to do. He wasn’t sure why he even tried anymore. He acts as if what’s he’s doing right now matters - as if it won’t just all be reset. But he knew that, even if he couldn’t give less of a shit about his own pain, it’s Pap’s he was worried about. If he died, nothing was keeping Chara’s eyes off of his brother, and he couldn’t have that. “You gonna fall asleep on me again Sansy? As if that worked the other two thousand and thirty five times you’ve tried it.”

Sans let out a weak laugh that almost immediately dissolved into coughs, shrugging and letting an empty smile dancing is way across his face once he was done. “what can i say? sleeping is my specialty. i’m always...tired to the bone!”

“Even in your moments before death, you still manage to be a pain in my ass.” Chara laughed and shot forward. Sans scanned the area around him for any sort of way out, anywhere to go, but he realized that in this moment, he was completely cornered against a wall. Teleportation was out of the question, since the magic left wasn’t nearly enough considering his tired state. He let out a weak “I’m sorry, Papyrus-“ just as Papyrus shouted “DO IT, SANS!”. The smaller shot forward his hand, grabbing a hold of the others soul with his magic and slamming them down on the opposite side of the room. Immediately, the soul broke, and the child disappeared. 

They must really be weaker than normal to die after a hit like that. 

For a few moments, silence. The smaller of the two waited with baited breath, ready for the world around them to shift, and for him to look down and see himself at the last Save. That moment never came. 

A million questions raced their way through his head, but he knew they shouldn’t be his main priority in that moment. 

Sans slowly, painfully dragged himself to his feet, making his way over to Papyrus’ cage and collapsing in front of it. With shaky fingers, he attempted to figure out what to do, fingers wrapping around the bones in attempt to find some sort of weak spot, some sort of way to free his brother - before his hands were suddenly grabbed, and squeezed as tightly as they could have possibly been. 

“DON’T WORRY, BROTHER.” Papyrus choked out, smiling despite pouring tears. “YOU’RE GOING TO BE OKAY. I HAVE A PLAN - WE-WE’LL FIX THIS. I PROMISE. YOU’RE NOT...YOU’RE NOT ALONE ANYMORE.”

Sans laughed weakly, but the laughs almost immediately dissolved into sobs that wracked his body. Papyrus despised the fact he wasn’t with his brother - if he were, he would be hugging him as tightly as possible. “you have no idea how many times you’ve said that to me, paps.” He croaked out, voice even deeper than normal. “and everytime - fuck, everytime i feel so...desperate to believe you.”

Sans never swore in front of Papyrus.

“STOP,” Papyrus said gently, removing the others hands from the bars that kept him imprisoned and holding them instead. “FOCUS ON RELAXING, BROTHER. I PROMISE YOU WON’T HAVE TO FIGHT FOR LONG. THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS AN IDEA!” He smiled when Sans let out a weak chuckle at that, nodding shakily. In a fluid movement, Papyrus reached forward, pulling the other forward so that his head was resting against the bars. He leaned his body closer, a small clank echoing through the area as he placed his teeth against the others forehead in an awkward attempt at a kiss. 

“I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BROTHER.” He whispered softly as Sans rocked backwards to look at him, bags under his eyes more pronounced than they ever had before. “You’re the best brother anyone could ever ask for, ever. Please, never forget that.” 

“Aww! How cute!” Chara’s voice echoed loudly, and Sans cursed, still slightly wiped from the seeming endless fight they had had earlier. Reluctantly, he pulled himself from Papyrus, and got to work on the human, killing them a second time, a third, a fourth, a fifth, all the way up to thirty two. 

He was heaving by the last time, gripping his chest and shaking his head. “god, paps.” He laughed weakly, the sound coming out as more of a wheeze. “i really should’ve listened to you when you told me to eat healthier and exercise a lil’.”

Papyrus whimpered weakly, not seeing the humor in the situation. “JUST ONE MORE TIME, SANS.” He pleaded weakly. “I KNOW THEY’RE COMING. THEY HAVE TO BE PRACTICALLY HERE BY NOW - YOU JUST HAVE TO SURVIVE ONE MORE TIME.”

Sans nodded weakly, collapsed in front of the others cage and still trying to take deep breaths in attempts to calm himself. He glanced to the left to make sure Chara wasn’t back yet, whispering softly. “i think chara’s weak. i’m not sure why, but they’re acting weird. their speech is different, they’re having a much harder time fighting me than normal, and their movements are slower. and it’s almost like their body isn’t fully there...somethin’s wrong.”

“Aww! Smart guy figured me out!” Chars laughed, appearing behind Sans and swiping through the air ferociously with their knife. “You think you’re solving the mystery, huh?”

Sans laughed weakly, almost immediately collapsing after teleporting away. Papyrus gripped the bars tightly as he watched his precious brother slowly deteriorate. He couldn’t imagine how painful and tiring it must be to use so much of your magic at once. The fact Sans was even still standing was testament enough to how uncharacteristically strong he is. 

“well?” Sans asked, shrugging towards the other as he shoved his hands in his pockets and continued to try and regulate his breathing. “why?”

“Well,” Chara growled slightly, the insane smile dropping a bit for the first time since Papyrus had seen them. “I am a dead child, and resets aren’t so great for the state of dead children.”

“you don’t have enough energy to possess frisk anymore.” Sans growled, fists clenching. “where’s the kid, then?”

“With Toriel.” Chars rolled their eyes. “I tried, I tried so many times. But when Frisk refused to come with me, I just left.”

“so you’re losing control, too. that’s why you don’t have a body.” Sans heaved softly, a sort of sarcastic laugh bubbling up in between his broken words. “how much are you gonna last, brat? one more death? two, maybe?”

Chara laughed, noting how slow Sans was becoming. The man was really becoming drained, practically unable to move at this point. Chara had confidence in the fact they wouldn’t die again, so they didn’t respond to Sans question. Their silence, however, was answer enough for Sans. For the first time, he felt the smallest bit of hope echo throughout his mind. 

“SANS!” Papyrus screamed, watching his brother become sleepy. Watching him, his brother, his strong, amazingly cool brother fight for the last two hours had been...it had been something Papyrus would never have expected. He always chided his brother for being weak and doing nothing to fix it, but it turns out Sans was the strongest out of all of them, even more than Undyne. His moves were absolutely amazing - the way he jumped and teleported and avoided every attack with an amazing level of grace, and still managed to flick his wrist and send the human flying in an instant when he had to. Papyrus was...shocked. He was seeing a part of his brother he never knew, and it...broke him. It broke him to think about why Sans was this strong - about the fact that, the only reason he had built himself up so much was because he was faced to fight his child amount of times the younger brother wasn’t sure he would ever be able to wrap his mind around. Papyrus would give anything to have a small brother he had to protect, as opposed to a tough one that was cracking inside and out. 

“You really are fun to watch, Sans.” Chars laughed, glaring down at Sans. They were facing each other fully, with Chara’s back to the world behind them and Sans, standing at perfect eye level, staring straight into their pupils. “It’s amazing you can fight so well when you’ve gotten, what? Two, three hours of sleep this week?”

Sans scoffed. “you’re being generous.” He laughed, ready to jump back at a moments notice. He wasn’t sure his reflexes would react in time, but he knew he had to try. 

It was then that the moment Papyrus had been praying for finally happened. A large “NYAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH-!” echoed through the forest as Undyne, Alphys, the real Frisk, and Toriel all rushed up to the scene, Undyne with a spear in her hand, Alphys rushing over to Papyrus’ cage and Toriel keeping the good child close to her for now. 

Undyne let out a loud snarl, gripping the spear as tightly as she could. “Step away from him.” She warned, scared to throw a shot, since she was shaking with anger and any slight mistake could end Sans life. 

Turns out, she didn’t have to be scared. Sans was distracted, looking towards his friends with wonder and confusion, trying to figure out what they were doing there. 

Papyrus noticed seconds before it happened, screaming his brothers name desperately as Alphys worked to break down the cage using whatever tools she had shoved in her pockets. Undyne noticed next, throwing the spear with all her might to stay on target and praying, PRAYING she would hit it in time.

Sometimes, though, the universe just didn’t work like that, and it never seemed to for Sans. He felt the knife drag across his chest and his HP plummet, panic spreading through his mind before it was replaced with complete and utter bliss. He heard Papyrus screaming his name, but it seemed far away. All he could hear was his tight breathing, Chara’s instable shaking, and his blood first splatting and then steadily dripping onto the perfectly white snow beneath them. 

“Welp.” He smiled, shrugging slightly as he watched the spear plunge into the child from behind, piercing right through their soul and shattering it. “Guess we both lost this one, huh?”

“You were right, Sans.” The brat released a pained smile, allowing the knife covered with both dust and blood clatter to the ground as she stared up at the quickly fading eyes. “I don’t have much energy left. I can’t do much more. But...” she laughed loudly, voice suddenly raising to a crazy, insane pitch. “Don’t think you’re free! You can’t get rid of me, Sans. I’ll always find a way to torment you.” ” They laughed. “You’ll never be rid of me Sans!”

Their soul burst, sending fragments everywhere. For a moment, it was silent.

The sound of Sans collapsing to his knees broke the silence. Everything dissolved into chaos. 

Toriel detached herself from the small child and ran over to Sans at full speeds, gagging as she stared down at the blood that covered her friend and the floor beneath him. Undyne growled and looked towards the entrance, just in case the brat tried anything else. The cage surrounding Papyrus disappeared without the kids will to uphold it, and immediately he found himself on the ground, cradling his brother and trying his very hardest to ignore the blood as he sobbed and begged him to stay. 

Toriel panicked for about half a second before going into Mom-mode. She reached out, gently placing her hands over Sans bloodied chest. The unconscious man who was currently at 0.1 health and had about ten seconds to live as it was, whimpered and shifted a little in Papyrus’ hold as the uncomfortable and unfamiliar touch. 

“Hold him tightly.” Toriel whispered to Pap. “I need to heal him as quickly as possible to avoid him reaching zero.” She stopped talking after that, a bright light consuming the area around them as she pumped all of her magic into sealing her friends wound. Sans was completely unconscious throughout all of this, whimpering and snuggling closer to Papyrus whenever something stung or there was a loud noise (such as Undyne screaming in frustration and anger. Four times.)

“SANS...” He croaked out, holding the other as close to his chest as he could without physically harming them. “SANS, OH MY GOD...” all of his emotions flooded him at once and he was full out sobbing, hugging his brother in a way that he tucked Sans against his chest, desperate to protect him from the rest of the world and everything Sans had gone through. Occasionally, the smaller of the two skeletons would ever let out a soft whimper, which Papyrus responded to by finding Sans bloodied hand and giving it a tight and reassuring squeeze. 

“SANS, I’M SO SORRY SANS...Y-YOU’RE ALWAYS THERE FOR ME, YOU’VE PROTECTED ME SO MUCH, AND YOU’VE HAD TO GO THROUGH ALL OF THIS ON YOUR OWN...SANS, SANS...” He hiccuped slightly as he felt two different hands on his shoulders, one soft and the other slightly tougher. Both of them emitted gentle auras. 

“He should be okay.” Alphys murmured as she sat down on one side of the two, tucking her legs so they were comfortably crossed. She reached her hand out towards Sans, but hesitated, looking to Papyrus as if asking for permission. The taller skeleton nodded softly, eyes still trained on his brother. 

Alphys placed a hand on Sans chest, positioned just above the large slash wound. She closed her eyes, and the area around them went dark, with the exception of Sans blue soul. The group went silent, although Toriel kept healing, determined to get Sans to the top possible HP.

Alphys was a few seconds into the magical performance when Sans began to shake in his sleep. His soul retracted from the short distance it had made, going back into his chest and causing for the area around them to become lighter. 

“Did he just...reject me?” Alphys asked with wide eyes, looking up at Papyrus, who had an equally as confused and shocked look on his face. “Monsters...can do that?”

“WELL...” Papyrus scratched the back of his neck, frowning. “I GUESS IF THERE’S ONE THING WE’VE LEARNED TODAY, IT’S THAT SANS ISN’T EVERYTHING WE THOUGHT HE WAS. I...I’LL TRY.” He frowned softly, feeling slightly drained from his constantly attacking of the bones that kept him locked up before, but knowing that it was nothing even close to the pain Sans was feeling and had felt. There was also a slight fear within him that Sans would deny even him, his own brother, from seeing his soul - but he pushed aside his own trivial worries for now. Instead, He placed a hand over the others chest, closed his eyes, and concentrated as much as he could.

Sans shaking stopped almost immediately, body falling relaxed and limp against his bro once again. The younger of the two felt the sides of his mouth tilt up at the sight of his precious brother looking relaxed for the first time in quite a while. He wanted to see it more. 

Papyrus focused on the bright pressure in the middle of his chest, using his own soul to reach out to Sans’. At first, nothing happened ; and then, the area around them dimmed, and Sans soul was steadily slipping it’s way out of its owners chest, presenting itself out in the open with Papyrus’ comforting magic keeping it in place. Alphys gasped, and Papyrus swallowed. 

Running along the center of the soul was one large, long crack, ragged and jagged around the edges. The soul itself was a considerable amount of shades paler than it should have been, enough for there to be an obvious difference to Pap from the last time he had seen it to now. It was pulsing weakly, but it was obvious that soul had undergone some sort of damage. 

“Sans...” papyrus whispered out in wonder, while Alphys’ gasped at the sound for a moment. “Oh...that’s not good...” she whispered, pulling out a small notebook and beginning to scribble something down. Pap, of course, was immediately and intensely alarmed. 

“WHATS WRONG? WILL HE BE OKAY?” He placed his hand on the back of Sans head and pulled him ever closer, feeling the other shift and breath softly against his bones. At least he seemed calm. 

“I...I think so? Th-That’s a pretty damaged soul, a-and it usually only belongs to people that-that have...been in war, or something like that. The crack down the middle signifies guilt as well as confusion - guilt over what you did and confusion over whether it was the right choice or not. The light blue tint, it uh...” she scratched the back of her head. “that means, a-a loss of hope. A loss of dreams or inspiration. Essentially, that loss of color means d-depression. Monsters that are depressed fall...they fall easily. We have to help him, a-and quick. I can give him a quick shot to give us time, but we have to get him on a healing path as soon as possible.”

Papyrus listened intently and nodded, looking down at his brother and feeling his breath hitch again. He knew he was quite a cry-baby as it was, but he didn’t think he would ever not get emotional at big things, especially something like this. To know his brother, the person who loved him so much and was so thoroughly loved in return, was feeling like this...it hurt. It hurt so bad and all Papyrus wanted to do was hold Sans until the end of time, to protect him forever and never let him anything bad happen to him. 

“I’M GONNA HELP.” He whispered softly, looking down at Sans but addressing all three of the beings in front of them. “HE WON’T BE ALONE ANYMORE. HE CAN GET BETTER - I KNOW HE CAN, AND I’LL HELP HIM, ALL THE WAY. I WON’T...I WON’T LET MY BROTHER FALL AFTER EVERYTHING HE’S DONE FOR ME.”

Toriel’s lips twitched into a smile as she listened to the others words, happy someone as sweet as Sans was in such good hands, and was so thoroughly loved. “I’m done.” She panted our, collapsing away from the subject at hand. She was tired, yes - but the wound on Sans chest was practically completely closed, now just a bright red scar left in its place. “We should get home.” She murmured, addressing the rest of the group. “We need to change his clothes. Wash the blood off, and allow him to get some much needed rest. We’ll be there once he wakes up.”

As a way of agreeing with her statement, Papyrus pushed himself up off the ground, refusing to take his arms off his brother in the process. He became vaguely aware of Sans shaking, yet not with fright or warning this time. Looking down, the scrunched up look on Sans face immediately told Papyrus his brother was just cold. He didn’t hesitate a second, unwrapping the scarf from around his neck with one hand, while managing to still hold Sans with the other. Tilting the others head up with a gentle motion, he slipped the scarf behind his neck, wrapping him up with it and tucking it so that it covered the other as much as possible. 

He thought back to Chara’s words. “The amount of times your brother has come through these woods and seen your scarf laying in the snow, covered with your dust, and fell to the floor and hugged it as tightly as he could...it’s indescribable.”

Papyrus set his jaw straight as he looked at the other. He would made that scarf something Sans thought of as good, not a bad memory.

He was going to help his brother. Sans wouldn’t be alone anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

The first time Sans came to, he immediately noted the familiar feeling of the home-knit scarf tied around his neck. For a second, he went into a panic; eyes flying open to analyze whatever world may lay in front of him. As soon as they did so, however, he had a clear shot of who was carrying him - Papyrus himself. Arms wrapped around his brother protectively, he had Sans’ head tucked underneath his chin and buried against his neck. 

Under any other circumstance, Sans would’ve forced himself to wake up entirely, moving out of the weird half-awake, half-dreaming state he was in. Papyrus clearly hadn’t noticed the fact that Sans had awoken, as he was looking upwards. His mouth was moving, communicating with someone out of Sans’ line of sight. The smaller skeleton tried to work out his brothers words, but his sense of hearing was too muddled to catch much of anything.

It was clear they were outside. The cold nipped at his bones, and a dark, blurry backdrop lay beyond Papyrus’ head.

Sans decided he didn’t want to be awake at that moment. He let his eyes close again and a soft sigh leave him as he faded back to sleep. In his brothers arms, he had no nightmares. 

The next time he woke up, he was considerably warmer. He became immediately aware of the fact a blanket had replaced the scarf, wrapped tightly around his body and tucked against him neatly. He was still in Papyrus’ arms, judging by the slight rustling of movement every few seconds and the low sound of his brother’s voice so near. 

Before he could stop himself, he let out a low groan - his bones ached from exhaustion and his eyes hurt to open. The noise, of course, called for his brothers attention rather quickly. 

“SANS?!” The others voice was muddled, and Sans had a rather difficult time moving his head to look at the other. “SANS! YOU’RE AWAKE!”

“h...hey bro.” Sans gifted the other an unstable smile and allowed for his body to relax, letting out low breaths against the others chest. “how long...have i been out?”

“ONLY A FEW HOURS, BROTHER.” Papyrus answered easily, shifting in a way that he thought might make Sans a bit more comfortable. The man’s eyes slid shut easily and opened with a bit of difficulty, Papyrus noted in the back of his head. “BUT WE’RE HOME, AND WE’RE SAFE. YOU SHOULD SLEEP A LITTLE MORE, BROTHER.”

“mm.” Sans mumbled and stretched his arms down, slowly beginning to push himself up. He was forced to stop almost immediately, a pain echoing in his abdomen and forcing him right back into his brothers lap. A light hiss of pain fought its way past his teeth, and he automatically felt the arms around him tighten considerably.

“CAREFUL, BROTHER! YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH A LOT. YOUR BODY MUST NOT BE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT YET!”

“how am i not...dead?” Sans mumbled softly, voice devoid of any emotion - with the exception of pure confusion - or sadness linked to the question. The way Papyrus tensed, however, didn’t slip past him. “i mean...the kid slashed me. how did i survive that? i usually turn to dust immediately.” He laughed. “and how have we not reset? usually-“

“SANS.” Papyrus cut him off, bringing Sans to the realization that he had been rambling a little. “TORIEL WAS QUICK TO HEAL YOU. YOU WERE ASLEEP, SO WE JUST BROUGHT YOU HOME. THE HUMAN...THE HUMAN HAS NOT COME BACK.” The undeniably smaller of the two glanced to the side, a slight look of guilt echoing through his mind at the mention of the child. He felt Paps hands on the sides of his face, forcing him to look at his younger brother. “BUT FRISK - THE GOOD HUMAN - THEY ARE SAFE. THEY’RE WITH TORIEL, MAKING DINNER IN THE KITCHEN. DOCTOR ALPHYS AND UNDYNE ARE THERE AS WELL.”

Sans nodded slowly, a deep breath leaving him as he seemingly melted against his brothers comforting arms. “not gonna lie, bro. i’m pretty tired. maybe i’ll take you up on that nap.”

Papyrus smiled at that notion, nodding and lifting the other slightly so that he was brushing their cheeks together in an affection, nuzzle-like manner. “SLEEP, BROTHER. YOU DON’T NEED TO BE SCARED OF ANYTHING. I’M HERE TO PROTECT YOU.”

Sans found himself grinning, one of the first genuine smiles for a long while. It was so like Papyrus to say things like that. “i believe you, bro.” A yawn escaped him and he cuddled against the other. “g’night, bro.”

 

The last and final time he woke up, there was more noise around him than before, and everything was much clearer. He could recognize Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, the kid, and obviously, Papyrus. They seemed to be chattering, but keeping their voices quiet, probably so as to not disturb him. A soft breath fluttered through his teeth, and the entire room went silent. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, waiting with bated breath to see if he was waking up. 

“jeez. i’m a skeleton, guys, not a ghost.” He mumbled softly, getting up and rubbing his non-existent eyes. The palm of his hands dipping into the concave holes in his head as the monsters (and person) around him immediately dissolved into talking to him, all demanding different answers to different questions. He struggled to answer everything, nervous laughs bubbling out as he was asked more and more. Understandable, yes, but overwhelming to say the least. 

It was Papyrus who spoke up, saying “EVERYONE! PLEASE BE QUIET! ALLOW HIM TO COLLECT HIS BEARINGS BEFORE WE SHOWER HIM WITH QUESTIONS.”

Sans chuckled awkwardly, but had gratefulness shining in his eyes. He shifted, moving to get off of his brothers lap. To his surprise, Paps held fast, not allowing him to leave. When he glanced back at his brother, he saw an alarming amount of desperation in his brothers eyes - asking Sans to stay more for himself than for his brother. Sans, however, wasn’t one to leave his brother sad, so he situated himself on the others lap with little fuss and leaned against his chest. 

“‘m fine, guys. thanks for your concern.” He smiled at his friends, eyes landing on Frisk. “nice to see ya, kid.”

Sans watched with shock as tears filled the child’s eyes and they shot forward, arms outstretched and immediately gripping Sans in a tight and restrictive hug. He let out a soft grunt as he was enveloped in tiny arms and hands, but a soft smile soon spread across his face as he leaned down and held the other. “hey, kiddo.” He murmured, stroking their hair in a fashion that he hoped was comforting. “no need to worry, okay? i know it wasn’t you.”

The child waited a few more seconds, drinking up the feeling of Sans being okay before hoping down and clearing their throat. Sans jammed his hands back into his sweatshirt pockets, eyebrows raising as he watched the child use their voice. They didn’t do it much, they tended to be a pretty quiet kid. 

“No more resets.” They promised, voice soft and shaky from misuse. Sans felt his eyes widen as he watched the child reached their hand forward with a chubby pink finger outstretched in the offer of a promise, and before he could help it, tears filled his sockets. He giggled slightly at first, his shoulders shaking with his body as the rest of the room was dead silent, all eyes on him. Before he knew it, the soft giggles became louder, turning into laughs, cackles and then dissolving into sobs. He reached out shakily and wrapped his pinky around the others, smiling wider than he had in a long, long time. 

“thanks kid. i appreciate it.” He choked out, immediately feeling Papyrus’ arms around him tighten and hug him even tighter. He felt the relief pouring off of both of them, as well as everyone else in the room. That promise held an immeasurable weight to it that Sans was sure he would never be able to properly express. Having it gone, though...

It was amazing. 

Sans settled back into the others arms, wiping away his tears as the child returning back to Toriel’s. They sat in silence for a moment before Papyrus awkwardly cleared his throat, giving Sans another little squeeze (the smaller of the two noted how much he was doing that.)

“SO, SANS.” He said, tone gentle despite volume. “I WANT YOU TO SLEEP AS MUCH AS YOU NEED, AND EAT TOO. YOU NEED TO GET BACK TO FULL STRENGTH. ONCE YOU’RE THERE, THOUGH, WE’RE GOING TO...” he cleared his throat awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. “WE’RE GONNA VISIT DOCTOR ALPHYS, AND SHE’S G-“

“she’s gonna give me antidepressants.” Sans finished easily with the wave of his hand, smiling affectionately at his brothers rare stuttering. “sounds cool, bro. just a warning - i don’t mix well with paxil. we’ve tried it before and it...didn’t work. gave pap a heart attack.”

Alphys eyes widened for a moment before she nodded, making a mental note of that. Papyrus wondered in the back of his head what the other could be talking about, but he knew pressing probably wouldn’t wield any results. 

“I’d a-also like to run a few...” Alphys bit her lips and looked to the side. “Tests. Simple ones ; quick ones. P-Painless ones. I just...wanna check some things.”

Sans raised a non-existant eyebrow at that. “what does that mean?” He asked, somewhat warily. Papyrus was paying attention now too, as Alphys hadn’t mentioned anything about ‘tests’ earlier. 

“Simple things!” Alphys was quick to defend as soon as she noted the looks from everyone else, all equally as questioning and slightly worried. “I wanna...check your soul levels. I wanna see how powerful you are, considering your fighting, and I want to check if anything is off with your soul that may have caused for you...remembering things. A-And they can wait! N-Not right away, obviously! Y-You’re still healing, and that wouldn’t...be an amazing idea for you right now.”

“oh.” Sans shrugged slightly, hand resting on top of Papyrus’. “yeah, that’s fine. go ahead.” 

“Hey.” A sudden, more aggressive voice prompted from the other side of the room, loud and commanding attention. Sans glanced over to Undyne, a sudden smile spreading across his face and his fingers instinctively moving into finger-guns directed towards Undyne. 

“hey, guess i’m the undying now, huh?” He said with a proud smile, waiting for someone to laugh or even let out a pitiful chuckle.

No one did. The only response he got was Undyne, cold and level, still staring straight at him. She wasn’t looking at him, as much as she was looking at his soul - it felt like she was studying him. 

“Why didn’t you tell us before, Sans?”

Silence fell over the room, Sans eyes going wide for a moment in shock at the bluntness of the question - only for an immediate, easy laugh to slip through his mouth. “sorry, didn’t expect anyone to be so straightforward. i guess i should expect it from you, tho-“

“Don’t dodge the question.” Undyne snapped, cutting Sans off. He swallowed. 

“well...i have told you before. in other timelines. a-and you all believed me, but it...never made much of a difference.” He shrugged, looking down and wringing his fingers inside his hoodie pockets. “it kept papyrus up at night because he was scared for me. undyne started training three times as hard, and alphys worked...god, how hard alphys worked. it just broke us. when the kid fell down, it only got worse.” He shrugged slightly, burying himself deeper into his hood. “knowing what was going on hurt you guys. a lot. so i just decided it was better to take on the pain myself and not rope you guys into it.”

“Okay, well, that’s a shitty opinion-“

“Undyne!” Toriel snapped sharply, pulling out her strong ‘mother’ tone. Undyne groaned. 

“Sorry, Tor, Sorry, kid. But Sans - I have another question.”

“shoot.” Sans shrugged slightly as he settled back against Papyrus’ chest. He was glad he stayed in his brothers lap. Not only was he warmer than he would be normally, but he also had a sense having his brother so close was giving Papyrus a level of comfort. Sans would be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling the same. 

“Why didn’t you stop the kid from killing us?”

Sans eyes widened and he moved forward slightly from surprise, not really expecting that question so early on. He let out another hollow laugh, chuckling as he shrugged emptily. “tried. it didn’t work.”

“The hell does that mean?!” Undyne demanded, growling. “Listen Sans, I know you’ve been through a lot but you...you have to give us answers! Why wouldn’t you stop this? Why did Papyrus get killed so many times - didn’t you save hi-“

“of course i did.” Sans voice was smooth, his fists clenching to contradict it. He felt Papyrus wrap fingers around his hands in an attempt to calm him down, but the smaller of the two wasn’t sure it was going to work. “of course i tried. i jumped in front of papyrus, and then he went through the pain of losing me and then having to fight the human all on his own. i tried to save you, and toriel, hell - i tried talking alphys away from the ledge! no one really listens to me, man. especially not when i’m rambling like a fu- like a crazy person in the middle of a genocide.” He laughed weakly, leaning back and shaking his head. “eventually, chara just got sick of me trying to intervene. they made it so that i was always passed out when they killed someone, so that there was no possible way for me to stop them. they liked having me as the final boss.”

Undyne growled. “Did you ever fight with us? Did you ever go down as something other than a crippled boss at the end of a fucking video game?!”

“Undyne,” Toriel warned, both on accounts of the swearing and to watch her tone around Sans. “We both know that’s not fair.”

“Like hell it is! Sans, I refuse to think you couldn’t have fought back! You had control of YOURSELF! You let your sadness stand in the way and you let us die! And you know, you have a real assholish way of going about things! You sleep all day, slack on the job, drink yourself into a coma instead of TALKING TO US? And because you thought you were protecting us? That just hurt us more, Sans, but you were too selfish living in your own little world to care!” 

“i...i...” sans smile turned wary, tilting down around the edges. Eyes trailed from the image of Undyne, to Toriel, to Frisk, and then to Alphys (who was sitting with wide eyes, shocked at how her girlfriend was acting). 

“ENOUGH.” Papyrus’ firm voice behind his ear caused for Sans to jump considerably, not expecting the other to take initiative in a situation like this ; especially one that was pitting two of his favorite people against one another. “UNDYNE, THAT’S...THAT’S ENOUGH.”

“But Pap! Don’t you want answers?!” Undyne groaned, looking at her friend with a level of desperation in her eyes. 

“OF COURSE I DO,” Papyrus shook his head, keeping his eyes level and set. “BUT I WILL NOT BULLY IT OUT OF HIM. THIS INFORMATION...MAKES A LOT OF SENSE. SANS WASN’T AS...” sans knew he was going to say ‘bad’, but had decided against the use of that word. He just knew it. “HE WASN’T AS SECLUDED BEFORE ALL OF THIS, BUT SITUATIONS CHANGE PEOPLE. SO PLEASE, UNDYNE - I KNOW YOU GO ABOUT THINGS WITH PASSION AND BRUTE FORCE BUT JUST...DON’T YELL AT MY BROTHER RIGHT NOW.”

Undyne grumbled, but everyone in the room knew it was her way of agreeing, as begrudging as it was. 

After that, some of the monsters began to head out. Toriel dubbed the situation handled, knowing that Papyrus had strong enough healing magic to cover anything if it came up. And, anyways, the child needed rest. Undyne and Alphys left soon after, Undyne still slightly rustled up from the fight and Alphys wanting to take her girlfriend to somewhere she could calm down. Asgore had left much earlier after preparing Sans a cup of (admittedly extraordinary) tea. Mettaton had, of course, been too busy to show up - but he knew the brothers well and sent his heartiest get-well messages instead. 

Eventually, that just left Sans and Papyrus. 

For the first few minutes, they just sat in peace. Sans still hadn’t moved since he had woken up officially, actually dozing in and out for small portions of time, comfortably nestled up in his brothers arms and the blankets. Papyrus had not objected, rubbing softly at the sides and top of his head in hopes to make him as calm and peaceful as possible. He remembered when Sans used to rub his skull when he was a child, and it almost always resulted in Papyrus going out like a light. Considering that, and the fact that Sans was snoring on top of him, he didn’t doubt the fact that it probably worked. 

When he finally did move, he was gentle, picking Sans up and then immediately placing him back down on their relatively-comfortable couch. The dog that always managed to find its way into their house immediately jumped onto the smaller skeletons lap, cuddling up against the warm blanket. Sans absentmindedly stroked its fur and blinked warily, brain mulling over many different things at once. 

He thought about Frisk’s promise, and the fact that where he was might very well be where he was meant to be forever. He had no doubt that Frisk would be able to get the barrier open if they stayed in this world - but was Sans supposed to just drop all of the resets he’d been through, forget all of those memories and one hundred percent trust that there would never be a reset again because a kid made a pinky promise? It wasn’t like this was the first time Frisk had ever promised not to reset again, but one thing had lead to another, and he had woken up in Snowdin. How was he supposed to know the kid was even in control of the resets? Chara could reset too - even though the current whereabouts of Chara were...unknown to say the least. 

This led Sans to his next thought. He couldn’t get Chara’s last words to him out of his head. “You can’t get rid of me, Sans. I’ll always find a way to torment you.” What did that mean? That seemed to infer the child was disappearing, at least in the form that Sans was used to seeing them in. But it was also clear the child had no intention of leaving fully, so where could they be? And why were they weakened? Things were obviously off. Instead of resetting a few minutes after when they died like they always did, they just...came back. Papyrus still remembered everything the kid told him while Sans himself was out conscious, which wouldn’t happen if Chara had gone back to their last save point - before that conversation. 

Sans groaned weakly and reached up, instinctively rubbing at his temples. This was too much thinking for right now. Too much thinking for today. 

Almost immediately, two hands wrapped around his own, pulling them down and away from cradling his thudding skull. They were placed in his lap, instead - Papyrus proceeding to place some soup forward as well. 

“DON’T THINK TOO HARD, BROTHER. TORIEL MADE THIS FOR YOU BEFORE SHE LEFT. I THINK YOU SHOULD EAT IT, THEN HEAD UPSTAIRS FOR BED.”

Sans hummed softly, not feeling like arguing. Plus, he typically really enjoyed Toriel’s cooking. “mm’kay, paps.”

He heard some shuffling as Papyrus plopped down next to him again, eyes staring intently down at his small brother as the other ate. At first, Sans was okay with it, but then the eyes watching his every movement got a little creepy. 

“you don’t have to be scared i’ll just randomly disappear, bro. if we go anywhere, it’s gonna be back in time together.”

Papyrus bit his lip. He hated how his brother approached that with little care or regard for how serious it was, but he wondered what he expected from someone who had been through the same situation time and time again. Nevertheless, he shook his head. 

“THAT’S...NOT TRUE, SANS. CHARA SAID THEY HAD...OTHER PLANS. THAT IS DISTRESSING ME.”

Wrong wording, Papyrus noticed a second too late as Sans flinched slightly. He opened his mouth to correct his mistake, but Sans was already well ahead of him, completely ready to back track in order to get out of the situation. “don’t worry about it, paps. i’ll figure it out.”

“NO.” Despite the gentle nature behind Papyrus’ voice, it was clear that he meant business. “DON’T DO THAT, SANS. DON’T LOCK YOURSELF UP LIKE THAT. WE ARE GOING TO FIGURE THIS ONE OUT, TOGETHER. I’M HERE TO HELP BROTHER, AND I WON’T LET YOU FIGHT THINGS ON YOUR OWN ANYMORE.”

Sans stared at the other with wide eyes, a small smile spreading across his face as he placed his plate down and rubbed his eyes, chuckling weakly. “you really are the best, paps.”

“OF COURSE I AM! NOW COME ALONG.” Papyrus reached down, scooping up his tiny brother again with almost no issues whatsoever. He made sure Sans was wrapped tightly in the blanket before heading up the stairs.

“you don’t have to carry me. i can just walk or teleport.”

“I KNOW, BUT YOU’RE REALLY DRAINED OF MAGIC. I WOULD ADVICE AGAINST USING IT FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS AT LEAST. AND WE BOTH KNOW YOU DON’T WANT TO WALK.”

Sans nodded softly, eyes closing as he leaned against the others chest. “carry me everywhere, then.” He mumbled, body wracked with a soft yawn. Papyrus groaned, but there was an endearing undertone hidden under his words. 

“WELL, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO WORK FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.” The door to Sans room creaked as it was pushed open. “SO YOU WON’T HAVE MUCH OF A DISTANCE TO MOVE ANYWAYS.” The owner of the room himself forced his eyes to open. He was met with a significantly cleaner room than how he left it ; Papyrus, Toriel or the both of them must have gotten in here at some point and tidied up a bit. Sans assumed it was Toriel, seeing as Pap never left his side. 

“youre giving me permission to be a lazy bones, pap?” Sans asked, looking at the other with wide eyes, only half joking. Papyrus, for half a moment, felt guilt. 

“YES, WELL, I REALIZED WITH EVERYTHING GOING ON THAT...THE THINGS I ALWAYS SCOLDED YOU FOR WERE PROBABLY CAUSED BY WHAT WAS GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES. SO, FROM NOW ON, WHEN I NOTICE THIS BEHAVIOR, I’LL HELP INSTEAD OF YELL.”

“sounds good, bro, but i was never really bothered by your yelling anyways.” Sans laughed softly, feeling his body slowly being lowered onto the bed below him. He felt the blanket being unraveled from around him and draped over him instead. Another, thicker blanket was placed at the base of his bed, in case he needed it during the night. There was silence for a moment, before he felt the two strong arms of his brother wrap around him one last time for the night. 

“I’M SORRY FOR BEING SO TOUCHY, SANS. BUT...I COULD’VE LOST YOU TODAY. I’VE ACTUALLY LOST YOU SO MANY TIMES, AND YOU’VE LOST ME, AND...AND YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH, I...” Papyrus took a deep breath. “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BROTHER. MORE THAN I CAN EXPRESS. SO I’M DETERMINED TO HELP YOU. I WON’T LET YOU FALL, SANS.”

Sans smiled sleepily and wrapped his arms around the other from behind, giving him a tight squeeze. “thanks, bro. i love you too. i think you should sleep, though. take care of yourself a bit.”

Papyrus took a deep breath, pulling away with a nod. “YES, OF COURSE. I CAN’T BE A GOOD CARETAKER IF I’M TIRED! JUST PROMISE ME YOU’LL COME INTO MY ROOM IF YOU HAVE ANY NIGHTMARES OR IF SOMETHING HAPPENS, OKAY?”

Sans nodded, looking to reassure the other. “i will, paps. night.”

“GOODNIGHT, DEAR BROTHER.” Sans watched as the other left the room, the lights flickering off as he allowed his own body to collapse back on top of his mattress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some basic family & friend bonding (which Sans isn’t quite used to yet but we can fix that).
> 
> Posted a bit earlier than I expected because I was bored & it was done lmao
> 
> If you’re enjoying this please leave a comment & some kudos - it means a lot!


	3. Chapter 3

Yet, despite how tired he was, Sans couldn’t seem to sleep. His mind would calm as if ready to sleep, then be buzzing moments later, denying him the precious break he definitely needed (although wasn’t sure he deserved). After a few minutes of going between tantalizingly close sleep to painfully awake, the skeleton finally gave up, bones cracking angrily underneath him as he pushed off of his bed and sat down on the ground instead. For half a moment, he lit up his eye for light, but then quenched it when he remembered Papyrus’ reminders not to use his magic. Settling on using a flashlight instead, he reached over to his bedside table and grabbed it from one of the drawers.

The house was silent, aside from his feet pacing softly against the floor, trying to stay quiet so Papyrus at least could get some shut eye. He brought himself over to his closet and opened the doors slowly, so as to avoid the loud and annoying squeaking. Standing on his tippy toes, he grabbed a box that had been shoved to the back previously, but was obviously overflowing with content. He settled back against his bed and closed his eyes, sighing for a moment before opening the lid and shuffling through the papers. 

Within a few minutes, the box was empty, all of the previous items laid out in front of him instead. They were all stupid little physics or general science projects he had done in his free time - a few scribbles on a paper there, a few scratched in equations there. He had enjoyed doing them on a whim at the time, but in this moment, he was looking a little deeper. 

He had no doubt behind Chara meaning what they said earlier. They would be back, although Sans had no idea how, or why. He did, however, have a tugging feeing in his non-existent gut, and that type of thing had never been followed by anything positive before. He shuffled through slightly before his fingers made contact with the exact paper he was looking for. 

It was a list at first glance. A list of words, some of which making sense and some of the others...not so much. To anyone other than the skeleton and perhaps his brother, it would be chicken scratch; absolutely nothing. 

To Sans, however, it was quite literally his life story. 

The paper was a list, sure - it was a bulleted list of every major event that had happened in Sans life. It started with ‘appearing in hotland”, ran into ‘being found by asgore’, met ‘becoming a scientist’ along the way (and then eventually ‘leaving the scientist position’), and ended with the beginning of the resets. There were more things in between, tinier things, of course, but for Sans current purposes, he was only focused on those events. 

Sans knew there was something he was forgetting in his life. 

It was strange. His very first memory was from when he was about eight, clutching a relatively newly-born baby Papyrus in his arms and gasping as the new, thick air hit him like a brick. He was in Hotland, although he didn’t know it at the time, and he had absolutely zero memories of anything before him appearing there. 

The instincts that were ingrained in him immediately set in - find food, find shelter. Despite not remembering where he was, he had a clear memory of looking down at Papyrus, seeing his giggling face, and being filled with a fiery passion to protect him. He went on his way, finding and settling down in Snowdin. The weather, although cold, was more what his body seemed to be used to. He made a friend quickly there, too - a young boy named Grillby, who was willing to get him and his brother - he knew Papyrus was his brother, his mind screamed it - food from his fathers restaurant whenever he was able to. Sans and Papyrus survived like this for a few years, the older of the two juggling feeding and raising his brother as best he could. Eventually - Sans wasn’t even sure how old he was - Asgore came walking through the town, and found them scampering away from the local restaurant with a bag full of burgers in Sans’ hands. One thing led to another, and before the brothers knew it, they had a small, cozy home organized and paid for by Asgore, who checked up on them constantly. He noted Sans intelligence and brought him to the lab to entertain what he seemed to be interested in. Once the boy was old enough, he even got him a job there. 

Sans knew Asgore, in some ways, considered himself to be their father, even if they never officially lived together. He once told Sans that, regardless of deeply wanting to take in the children, he estimated Sans was about fourteen by the time he found them. And yet, despite finding a child so young with a brother that was maybe seven, he knew Sans wouldn’t have wanted to up and move to the capital. And, as much as he would’ve - admittedly - liked to, moving to Snowdin wasn’t much of an option either. He had duties he couldn’t neglect. 

He really was a good dad, despite the fact Sans was such a...weird child, to say the least, and despite the fact the children’s past made little to no sense. 

However, no matter how clear and - at some points - happy that mess of a childhood was, Sans couldn’t ignore the glaring fact that he couldn’t remember anything from before that. Not a single thing. He always thought it weird growing up that he only remembered from age eight and upwards, but it was easier to chalk it up to random happenings than to put thought into it. Where were his parents? What happened to him? Neither mattered. He was here, and he had Papyrus, and Papyrus was relatively raised with a solid (if not a bit of a pushover) father figure, so why did anything else matter?

But, as Sans stared down at that paper, he couldn’t shake that nagging feeling in his soul. That time DID matter. Whatever happened during that time that he couldn’t remember...he was convinced. Absolutely convinced that it mattered. And in this moment, he was convinced that time gave him answers. Precious answers that felt so close, but were just out of reach. 

He remembered when he made this list. A rushed scribble of desperation during the first few timelines, desperate to prove to himself that he wasn’t crazy - that he remembered, and that this made some sort of senseless sense. It had to. 

He was shocked when the world reset, but that paper remained, untouched. To this day it was still in its original copy. It had not been deleted with everything else in the resets. 

There was a reason for that. Sans was utterly convinced. There was a reason for that, and it was applying itself now. It had to. 

However, as he stared at the words for longer and longer, they stopped making sense to even him. Words turn into nothing when the reader stares at the letters too long, and Sans was empty of comprehensive skills at this point. Completely lacking the energy to even get up and put anything away, he slumped over to the side lamely. Almost immediately he succumbed to the pull of sleep, snores echoing through the room as he slept leaning against his bed instead of on it. 

Unannounced to him, his brother walked in a few hours into the night, wanting to quickly check up on him. He immediately frowned at the sight, walking forward and awkwardly avoiding the papers and small models laid out on the floor in front of him. He took a moment to marvel at his work - he really needed to get Sans some science-related things, knowing the others deep love for it. 

He finally reached his brother and was as gentle as possible with picking him up, knowing he could startled or spook the other if he moved too quickly. He felt Sans shift, shortly followed by a soft whimper, immediately shushed by Papyrus. 

“JUST SLEEP, BROTHER.” He surprisingly whispered. He glanced down at the papers, but shrugged, deciding he’d deal with them tomorrow. “I’M JUST GETTING YOU IN TO BED.”

Sans fell silent, letting out a soft groan and cuddling closer to the source of warmth. The sight of him looking relaxed ; looking like he wasn’t...worried or stressed about anything...Papyrus felt his heart constrict. 

That night, Sans fell asleep in Papyrus’ bed, his brother right next to him. He didn’t have any nightmares. And, when he slept in the next morning, Papyrus didn’t even chide him for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter, but important. I wonder why that paper survived...? It seems to enforce the idea that Sans is important to the timelines, huh?
> 
> As usual, please leave some kudos & a comment if possible!


	4. Chapter 4

The next month, not-so-surprisingly, held a lot of change for the monsters of the underground, the Skeleton brothers included. 

The first and biggest change was the barrier. With Frisk underground and without the trail of Chara following them and possessing them to kill, they were able to easily break the barrier and acquire the happy ending they all craved. The joyous news that they were finally free rung loud amongst the inhabitants of the underground, and the monsters flooded onto the surface, basking in the sunlight. They managed to arrive there right as the sun was rising, and, much to Papyrus’ surprise, Sans was staring at it with wonderment and a bright, innocent look shining in his eyes. Papyrus hadn’t seen that look in his brothers eyes in a long, long time, and he was desperate not to break it, but curiosity’s call was too strong. 

“SANS...?” He walked up behind the other, sitting next to him on the ledge. After the information he learned, he couldn’t deny that seeing Sans...he couldn’t even think it, it made him too nervous. Sans picked up on this, smiling. 

“hey, bro. no need to be all on edge. i’m just watchin’ the sunrise.”

Papyrus was careful with how he chose his words, placing a hand to his chin before speaking. “HAVEN’T YOU...SEEN THIS BEFORE?”

Sans empty shrug didn’t supply much of an answer, and Papyrus became worried for a few moments that perhaps this would be one of those moments in which Sans closed himself off, refusing to talk or go into detail. He had done this a few times over the past month ; when Papyrus had asked how he had died, if either of them had ever ended up in any relationships (he didn’t miss the sad look that crossed over Sans eyes when he said that) and a various amount of other small, probably insensitive questions. 

This, however, wasn’t one of those times. “whenever we’ve come up before,” Sans talked quietly. Usually, his voice was relaxed and lacked any sense of caring ; but his was different. He was shuffling, almost as if he was uncomfortable. “it’s been the middle of the night, the middle of the day, or sunset. i’ve...we’ve never come up here for a sunrise before. it’s really pretty.”

Papyrus smiled at his brother. He wanted to keep that glowing look in his eyes alive. 

Sans would be lying if he said he didn’t notice the behavioral changes in his friends when they were around him, now. They were softer, gentler, acting as if they were holding something that might break with even the slightest bit of rough handling. They weren’t catering to him, per say, but they were definitely...hyper aware. 

Then, there was the way Papyrus acted. 

To be honest, Sans was rather surprised with how Papyrus took it. He had never lived through enough of a timeline after he had told Papyrus what he had been going through to find out what his brothers full reaction would be, seeing as one of them died, both of them died, or someone just reset the whole game altogether. So, truth be told, he was going into his brothers reaction blindly. 

Perhaps that’s why it was a surprise when Papyrus didn’t...freak out. He didn’t even really change. 

There were definitely smaller changes. Papyrus didn’t demand as much from Sans, and when the other was obviously out of it, he strove to help instead of chide. He was around the house more often (not like he was out much previously, but still) and stuck close to Sans in most situations. But the thing is, he wasn’t treating Sans as fragile. He wasn’t treating Sans like a precious glass plate that would shatter if dropped. He still groaned at his brothers jokes, still forced him to eat his spaghetti and still sang at obnoxiously loud volumes even when Sans begged him to stop. 

Papyrus didn’t see Sans as a different person after Sans had opened up about his experiences. The gratefulness he felt for that settled happily within his soul. 

A big thing he noticed, however, was how quick Paps was to spoil him all of a sudden. Whenever he so much as glanced towards an item in a store they happened to be passing, the brother would find it wrapped up with a pretty red bow on his bed the next day. Eventually, he started gently chiding Papyrus, telling him that they had just bought a house ; they didn’t have the funds for Pap to be snapping his fingers and getting Sans whatever he wished. Papyrus, of course, retorted with a strong “THAT’S NONSENSE! MY STRONG BROTHER DESERVES EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD! BESIDES, THE REST OF OUR FRIENDS HELP OUT WITH FUNDS, TOO!”

Sans blushed at that. He was happy to be loved. 

Another big improvement had been Sans’ soul. In the first few weeks since they moved into their new home on the surface, Sans had been gaining something he felt he would really never see again - hope. His soul slowly began to brighten in color, more and more pigmentation adding each day he woke up in his bed and not back in Snowdin. 

Papyrus had noticed these developments while helping Sans one-hundred percent recover and get his strength back, and he could honestly say he couldn’t be happier. 

There of course, however, were a fair share of not-so-great changes that had developed in the past month. Nightmare-free for the first week, Sans was getting some actually GOOD sleep, and he was feeling better than he had in...really, who knows how long. He expressed this to Papyrus, who had whooped happily with joy. Sans knew his drive to be more open around Paps and speak honestly about what was going on did not go unnoticed by his amazing bro. 

Then, the nightmares started up again, and they hit harder than they had in a long while. 

It happened the first time night they moved into their new home. Their bedrooms were now across from either other, as opposed to next door ; a feature Papyrus hated, since he couldn’t hear his brothers screams or cries if he had a nightmare. He figured that, since Sans was obviously being more open about his feelings and experiences, Sans would come to him if he had nightmares. 

That was confirmed that night when Papyrus’ door was swung open, a heaving Sans gripping his chest in hopes to calm himself down. His right eye was bursting with magic as his breath labored, tears dripping down his face. “paps...” He mumbled, and it was only moments before he was wrapped up in his brothers arms and being comforted. 

This only continued, getting worse and worse. Papyrus decided they should just sleep in the same bed for the time being, seeing as Sans seemed a little more comfortable when someone who close to him while he was sleeping. That idea worked, for a while, until it stopped working, and Papyrus was fresh out of ideas. 

Since the barrier broke, Alphys had been extremely busy, so they had decided to have their meeting with her towards the end of the month. The taller of the two skeletons was really starting to regret agreeing to that as he watched his older brother suffer, wanting to do nothing more than help. 

Perhaps Papyrus would have never pushed, however, if it weren’t for the occurrences that took place about a month into their life on the surface. They had eaten dinner around eight after they both got home from work (Papyrus had been added to the ‘royal guard’, or, what was left of it, and Sans had picked up his usual five different jobs to bring in money). Normally, they would watch TV for a few hours, but both of them mutually decided they were too sleepy to fully pay attention to Mettaton’s overly sexual antics, so they agreed to turn in for the night. 

Sans was feeling confident (he also knew that, in all probability, Papyrus wasn’t a big fan of having to share his bed, and he wanted to get out of his bros non-existent hair as soon as possible). “no need, bro.” He waved his hand once Papyrus asked him why he wasn’t coming into his room. “i’m bone tired. i can’t imagine i’ll have many nightmares tonight. i’ll get some sansational sleep!” He winked, laughing at Papyrus’ normal groans in response. 

“THOSE WERE BAD AND YOU KNOW IT, SANS.”

“give me a break, i’m sleepy.” Sans smiled, shaking his head as he turned to head into his unused bedroom.

“COME GET ME IF ANYTHING HAPPENS!” Papyrus called, shoulders deflating as he watched his brother retreat into his room. He dearly hoped Sans was right, and that maybe the other wouldn’t have another nightmare tonight. He was...rather happy Sans was in his own room, though. He would do anything to comfort his brother, in the end, but he still owned his race car bed, and it wasn’t all that comfortable keeping two fully grown adults in a twin size bed. He considered just moving Sans bed into his own room so they could share rooms and make Sans’ into a guest, but he figured Sans would want to keep his personal storage space. 

Also, the idea of both cleaning out Sans’ room and having to share an even closer living space with his brother made Papyrus’ head spin. 

He would...figure out a solution. In that moment, he was sleepy, so he slipped into his pajamas (complete with a baby blue nightcap) and all but dove into bed. He sprawled his body out, just because he could, and immediately began to snore. 

He was jolted awake by the door slamming open, and he immediately worked on waking himself up, ready to comfort his (no doubt) crying brother. When he glanced up at the other, however, fear seized his heart. 

Sans had fallen asleep without his shirt on - something he obviously avoided doing when sleeping with Papyrus, for just as obvious reasons. On his own, however, it was pretty typical. 

But now, he stood at the doorway of his bedroom, gasping as he clutched the ragged red slash wound that ran across his chest. “s-somethings wrong, pap.” He let, voice tight and uneven as he watched his brother jump out of bed and take large and desperate strides towards him. 

“SANS!” Papyrus took a knee in front of the other and reached out two shaky arms, pulling him close to his own chest and closing his eyes as he started up his healing magic. “A-ARE YOU OKAY? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?” Panic was running through him ; what happened to Sans? Was Chara there? Was Chara in the house? He gripped his brother a little tighter. 

Sans was beginning to pull himself together, taking shaky and deep breaths as he slowly pulled away from his brothers arms. “i...it doesn’t hurt.” He mumbled softly, shaking his head. “it doesn’t hurt at all. it just...” He laughed and scratched the back of his head. “sorry, i just freaked out a little.”

“BUT BROTHER,” Papyrus asked, desperation showing clear in his voice. “WHAT HAPPENED? HOW DID YOU GET THIS?”

Sans rubbed the palms of his hands into his eyes, wiping away the bright blue, magic tears that had previously cascaded down his face. “i had a dream. i was, uh...back in the judgment hall. with chara. a typical nightmare, i just..got slashed. but i woke up with the actual thing.” He frowned as he looked down at the angry red wound. “it’s not even bleeding, it’s just...there.”

Papyrus felt his panic begin to go down, but he didn’t let it drop just yet. He summoned a small amount of his magic, placing his hand on Sans clenched one and closing his eyes. The older brothers HP flashed above his head, showing a bright and healthy “1/1” label. He was completely okay. 

“YOU’RE SURE YOU’RE NOT IN ANY PAIN?” He asked, needing the reassurance as he looked at the blaring wound.

Sans nodded. “i’m positive bro. i just...i don’t really think i want to go back to bed tonight.”

Papyrus frowned, but ended up nodding with understanding. “PERHAPS THAT’S FOR THE BEST. COME ON, LET’S GO WATCH SOME LATE NIGHT METTATON.” 

Sans eyes widened, shaking his head in protest. “n-no, pap, go back to sleep. you have work tomorrow morning. go to bed, bro.”

Papyrus frowned. “NONSENSE. REMEMBER WHAT I SAID, BROTHER. WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER, AND I WON’T LET YOU DO THINGS LIKE THIS ALONE.”

Despite his mind screaming that he was putting Papyrus through way too much for such a painfully useless person, Sans couldn’t stop himself from smiling weakly. Together, they watched Mettaton until Papyrus had to leave for work the next morning. 

This continued to happen, and it was more and more terrifying each time. Sans went back to sleeping in Papyrus’ room, gasping with pain around the same time every night as he shot up in bed and gripped his chest with surprise. The wound on his chest kept growing deeper and deeper, but his HP kept solidly at one, and he insisted that it didn’t hurt. 

His brother was terrified, and he kept an even stronger eye on his brother (he can almost hear Sans correcting him to “eye socket” in his head). He heard Chara’s words echoing in his head - “you can’t get rid of me, Sans. I’ll always find a way to torment you.” 

Was Chara finding a way to get into Sans dreams? It definitely seemed so. He couldn’t think of another explanation as to why this would be happening. Why Sans would have the same nightmare night and night again, and always wake up with the same bloodless knife wound. 

About a week into this happening, Papyrus knew he couldn’t just keep waiting for Alphys to call them when she was ready. They needed some sort of help, and it was the type of help only the scientific mind of Alphys could provide. There was also the obvious fact that both brothers needed sleep, considering the fact the nightmares and stress had been so disrupting. 

Papyrus was desperate. He couldn’t sit by and watch his brother deteriorate. He had to do something. 

“MORNING, LAZY BONES! ARE YOU GOING ON YOUR WALK THIS MORNING?”

“yep.” Sans mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He still wasn’t a fan of the exercise - too much work. That being said, Undyne had VERY enthusiastically recommended it, since human studies showed it had a lot of positive impacts on the brain. She hoped it was the same way with the soul, and convinced Sans (or, more, convinced Papyrus to make Sans) go on walks most mornings. “i’m just goin’ to the park today. won’t be long.”

“OKAY BROTHER! BREAKFAST WILL BE DONE WHEN YOU GET BACK!” He bit back the need to add a quick ‘CALL ME IF ANYTHING HAPPENS’ at the end, but knows that chiding or harassing Sans will do nothing to help, it’ll only push him away. He had to take this slowly, and with patience ; a skill the taller of the two hadn’t exactly perfected.

The second he heard the door close, signaling Sans departure from the house, he dropped the pan he had been cooking with, turned off the stove and ran to the phone. Going to dial the number he had in mind, he paused ; Alphys was probably busy, but he knew someone who would always pick up, and could help in this situation. With a soft giggle at his own intelligence, he punched in a different number instead and held it to his ear, bouncing from one foot to another. 

“Pap!” The enthusiastic voice of Undyne boomed through the phone, sounding over-joyed to be hearing her friend again. Papyrus had to admit, he hadn’t been spending all that much time with her lately. He loved Undyne, obviously, but he had his hands full with his jobs, completing the move to the surface, and, most importantly, Sans. 

Plus...he would be lying if he said that the way Undyne had lashed out at his suffering brother didn’t sit a bad way in his stomach. He wasn’t mad, (the Great Papyrus could NEVER be mad at a friend for long!) it was more just that he couldn’t shake the thought from his head. 

“What’s up, nerd? We doin’ something today?!” 

The excitement in Undyne’s voice was undeniable, and caused for Papyrus to smile slightly. “HELLO UNDYNE! I WOULD LOVE TO, BUT I’M AFRAID I’M CALLING ON A DIFFERENT OCCASION. CAN, UH...IS DOCTOR ALPHYS WITH YOU?”

Undyne let out a soft sigh ; a surprise, since Undyne almost never did anything softly. “Al’s had work up to her neck since the barrier opened up. The humans demanded we show our smartest monster, and that was undeniably her, so she’s been handling the mixture of human and monster science and helped to make the transition easier. But!” Her voice immediately got louder again, going back to how it was meant to be. “If there’s an issue going on, I’m sure she can make some room! You guys are our friends, after all!” It was obvious what Undyne was hinting at. She knew what this call was about. 

Papyrus found himself glancing out the window of their house, which gave a perfect view to the park in their section of the neighborhood ; a small but pretty place, dotted with trees everywhere you go. At this moment, he figured, Sans was either humming at a bench, or walking around those trees with his hands shoved in his pockets. Or maybe he blew off the walk all together and went to Grillby’s new surface location that opened up last week. He wasn’t sure. 

“I THINK...I THINK THAT’D BE BEST.” Papyrus answered honestly, leaning his elbows on the counter in front of him and letting out a sigh that mirrored Undyne’s earlier. “SANS HAS BEEN HAVING NIGHTMARES. AT FIRST THEY WERE CONTROLLABLE, BUT THEY’RE GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AND NOTHING SEEMS TO HELP. I KNOW THAT, WITH WHAT HE’S BEEN THROUGH, IT’S EXPECTED, BUT IT’S GETTING DANGEROUS. HE CAN’T SLEEP AT ALL, AND IT’S REALLY NOT HELPING HIS MENTAL STATE TO BE ALWAYS EXHAUSTED. THERE’S SOME...OTHER ISSUES. WE JUST NEED TO MEET WITH DOCTOR ALPHYS. PREFERABLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.” 

Undyne’s response was almost immediate, although the heaviness in her voice at hearing about her dear friends’ suffering was obvious. “I’ll let Al know! I’m sure she’ll be open to do something today if she has any say in it at all. Just a warning though - she’s underground today, collecting a few things and wrapping up a few other experiments that would be too hard to bring to the surface. You guys would have to go back underground. Is that cool?”

“YES, THAT’S FINE.” Papyrus didn’t see an issue in that, and he wasn’t sure why Sans would either. “THANK YOU, UNDYNE.”

“Of course, nerd. Gotta look out for my friends.” 

They hung up, and Papyrus found himself leaning against the counter, deep in thought. Eventually, he let his shoulders sag as he reached out and picked up the pan to continue making breakfast. 

That day, after Alphys had texted the younger brother and informed them that she, of course, would open up a spot in her schedule to visit with Sans, they began to head down towards the barrier. It was a beautiful day, and Papyrus was happy to be outside, still mystified by the clean smelling air and the bright blue sky that illuminated above them. He couldn’t believe he had been without this his entire life. Moreso, he couldn’t believe humanity had kept something so amazing from the monsters for so long. It didn’t matter - it was here now. 

Papyrus noticed the way Sans seemed slightly pent up and nervous along the way to Alphys, keeping hunched shoulders upwards and dragging his feet along the pavement below them. Whether his nervousness sprouted from going underground, going to Alphys lab, or the appointment itself, he wasn’t sure. Any of them would make logical sense. Papyrus just wanted his brother to be able to relax. 

They got to the lab in no time, both of them knocking desperately against the door. They were from Snowdin ; they weren’t used to the heat. 

“thanks al.” Sans flashed an almost completely genuine smile towards the monster the second she opened the door. It was a relief to not have to force every smile that danced his features as of late, he had to admit. “we’re not exactly used to the heat. we were always...”

“SANS, DON’T!”

“chilled to the bone in Snowdin.”

“SANS!”

Alphys giggled at the exchange, shaking her head and stuttering as she apologized for the small wait. “You’re g-going to have to excuse the m-mess.” She said to the two as they walked through the lab, shuffling past sealed boxes labeled things like “DVDS” and “TRINKETS” in order to bringing them into some small room towards the back of the lab. “I’m s-sure Undyne mentioned this, but it’s been crazy hectic since the barrier broke. Everyone’s been-“

They passed by a door, closed with a tight lock on it. Sans froze in place, hands clenching together tightly stuffed inside his pockets. A thought crossed his mind - a painfully familiar thought - only to be immediately erased afterwards, as if someone was wiping words off of a chalk board frantically. 

A voice hissed to him his name. Well - it was complete, garbley nonsense, or, at least, SHOULD have been nonsense, but Sans understood the word perfectly. 

He found himself staring at the door. Glaring at it. His soul thumped loudly within him, almost as if begging him to do something. Whether that ‘something’ was run away or approach the mysterious place, he wasn’t sure, but the desperation was so clear, so strong-

“SANS?” 

He turned towards his brother, a look of confusion and surprise in his eyes. And, although Papyrus would never admit to it ; a look of worry, too. 

Sans realized he had been standing there, just staring at the door while the others had walked ahead. He laughed softly, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “sorry. got distracted.” He pulled his sweatshirt closer to himself on instinct, feeling the slash across his chest shift as he himself moved. 

Papyrus’ look softened. They kept walking. 

A few minutes later, Sans sat on a small medical table, swinging his legs absentmindedly as Papyrus stood next to him and Alphys across from them with a small clipboard. She suggested that they start with the easy stuff, so she was giving him some sort of test - a depression test. He had gotten it before. 

“How’s your sleeping schedule?”

If Papyrus weren’t there and knew the actual answers, Sans would be lying on all of these.

“either too much or not at all.”

Alphys scribbled something down. 

“Ever self harmed?”

Sans shrugged. “i guess, yeah.”

Alphys raised an eyebrow, but continued to scribble away anyways. 

“Ever attempted...” she cleared her throat, refusing to make eye contact with either of the brothers. “Ever attempted suicide?”

“yep.” Sans sounded devoid of emotion. He didn’t care anymore. “succeeded.”

Alphys gulped. She checked off the “yes” box. 

The test continued, with Sans giving robotic answers, devoid of fear, desperation, or any emotions at all. Papyrus felt his soul break in his chest as he listened to how little any of this effected his brother. He had seen and done all of these things so many times that they no longer hurt him - no longer mattered. Pap hated that. 

Alphys finished up with a nervous hum, placing the clipboard and pen back onto the counter and turning towards the two. “W-Well, I think the t-test answers are...r-rather obvious. I-I’m gonna start you on 10 milligrams of Prozac, and then we’ll go up ten milligrams every week until we level out...does t-that sound good?”

“sounds swell, doc.” Sans hummed, shrugging when she looked back down and opened her mouth. He knew what came next. “no need to list the side effects, i know ‘em.”

“NO.” Papyrus butted in, shaking his head. He had been pretty quiet throughout the entire encounter, although anyone who even glanced at him would immediately be able to see the gears turning in his head. “I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE SIDE EFFECTS.” He turned to Sans, eyes softening as he looked at his brother. “REMEMBER, BROTHER, WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE SO I CAN HELP WHEN THEY OCCUR!”

Sans was a little caught off-guard, but he shrugged softly. “sure, paps. knock yourself out.”

Alphys stuttered for a moment before beginning. “W-Well, it’s different for everyone. Sans could work g-great with this, o-or it could be a horrible fit, and we-we’ll change him to something else if that happens. B-Basically, any of these symptoms can be d-different. They can be really strong for Sans, really weak for Sans, o-or a weird t-type of combo.”

Papyrus nodded in understanding and urged her to continue. 

“They can cause seizures, allergic reactions and rashes...which...I’m not sure h-how that would work with skeletons, b-but still...they can cause suicidal thoughts, different types of disorders, abnormal...bleeding...” she winced at them. It wasn’t like Sans had all that much blood to spare. “insomnia or over sleeping, a change in eating pattern, and weight gain or weight loss.”

Papyrus stuttered, eyes wide. “WOW, THAT IS CERTAINLY A...LONG LIST.”

Alphys nodded before she rushed to clarify. “D-Don’t worry though! Not all of these happen! Seizures are really rare!! What you r-really need to be on the lookout for are weight gain, sleeping patterns and eating patterns. A-And suicidal...thoughts..”

Papyrus looked down. He seemed to be thinking deeply. “AND...YOU’RE POSITIVE THIS WILL HELP HIM? POSITIVE ENOUGH FOR IT TO OUT WEIGH THE RISK?”

Alphys stuttered, hating it when people put her words to the test. She didn’t like confirming anything one hundred percent or promising anything, especially when it came to someone’s safety ; not since...then. 

“I c-can guarantee that it’s w-worth a shot, Papyrus.”

Papyrus seemed to take that. He nodded, a smile on his face. “OKAY!” He turned back to Sans, placing his hands on his hips in a heroic manner. “DON’T YOU WORRY, SANS! I WILL HELP YOU IF ANYTHING COMES UP!”

Sans chuckled. “thanks bro. i know you will.” Papyrus beamed in response, happy that his brother had such strong confidence in him. 

“Sans...” Alphys soft voice broke them from their thoughts, both skeleton heads turning to look at her. “I...remember when I-“

“wanna run some tests on me?” Sans interrupted, chuckling at the embarrassed look that crossed Alphys’ face. “sure, doc. as long as it doesn’t get sketchy, i’m cool with it.”

Alphys nodded quickly, picking her clipboard and pen back up, flipping through to a different page this time. “T-Thank you for letting me do this. My first request is...it’s p-probably the worst. C-Can I have...c-can I get a look at your soul?”

Sans eyes widened for a moment, and he let out an awkward chuckle, rubbing the back of his head. “g-god, is that really needed?”

“W-Well, I won’t force you i-into anything, but it would help me to understand your condition m-more...”

Sans exhaled, defeat spelled clearly within in his eyes as he shrugged slightly and nodded. “yeah, sure, why not. no poking.”

He placed a hand on his chest, closing his eyes and summoning his magic with a soft hum. Almost immediately, his soul emerged, delicately floating in the air above them. Sans let his eyes open and rest on the culmination of his being in front of him, one eye emitting a bright blue glow. 

Alphys immediately began to scribble down notes. She commented on the shade of the others soul, it’s light pulsing, and the veins that ran through it. She also noted the small crack in the corner, gently asking Sans if he knew what that was about. He chuckled awkwardly and reached back to scratch the back of his neck. 

“i was an, uh...an alcoholic, for a few timelines towards the beginning. i thought my body would just reset so it didn’t really matter much, but i learned that some pretty weird things just kinda...stay. so i’ve got some permanent damage on my soul because of that, but i’ve avoided the stuff since.”

That was something Papyrus had noted, but hadn’t really had an explanation for prior to learning about everything. Ever since that one morning, the morning Sans had woken up to a reset, he had avoided alcohol. He still went to Grillby’s, of course, but his beverage of choice was either straight ketchup or a milkshake of some sort if he was feeling playful. He didn’t even glance towards the harder stuff. 

Papyrus hadn’t had a reason for why he was no longer getting called at three AM on weekends to come get his brother, but he figured it was definitely for the better that it had stopped. So even if the seemingly immediate halt in bad habits had put him off, he never questioned it deeply, and just let himself be thankful. 

Papyrus felt a pang of pain at the thought of his brother drinking himself into a coma in order to ignore the pain of reliving things. He snapped himself out of those thoughts almost immediately. He couldn’t wallow in the past ; he had to focus on making Sans better now. 

Alphys nodded, accepting the answer. “Okay, I really just wanted to take some notes so I could keep an e-eye on it. Y-You mentioned you have a wound? C-Can I take a look at it?”

Sans laughed softly, nodding. “yeah, sure. just,” He shrugged his jacket off, placing it behind him before pulling off the simple white shirt he had on underneath. His ribs were revealed, the doctors eyes widening once she saw the extent of the wound. 

“O-Oh w-wow...” she murmured, looking down at it. “T...That looks deep. And why is it bleeding? W-What happened, again, exactly?”

Papyrus stepped up, telling the story of what had been going on with Sans lately, with his brother interjecting small, out of place details. Alphys nodded and listened along, grabbing a small device off of her counter and beginning to fiddle with the settings. Sans eyed it with a relative look of confusion and wary. Alphys noticed this and rushed to explain what it was. 

“I-It’s nothing to be f-freaked out by! I-It’s a little device I can use to s-scan the wound and see if there’s a-anything off a-about it. M-Magic levels, a-any dusting, a-anything weird that may be left on the w-wound...d-does that make sense?”

 

 

“sure.” Sans shrugged slightly and leaned back, giving the other access to the wound on her chest so she can scan it. “but, just so you know, the settings you have on are wrong.” He raised an eyebrow as Alphys stuttered in surprise. 

“W-What? W-What do you mea-“

“you have it set for most monsters, but i’m a skeleton, so you need to adjust for the calcium levels so you get more accurate readings. also, since i have one hp, you need to set it for low tolerance, since the machine will be looking for how much issues would effect each individual monster. a minor cut would register as nothing for most monsters but a significant wound for me.”

Alphys and Papyrus stared at him with wide eyes. Blinking hard, the scientist snapped out of it, going to fix the settings on the device. 

“Y-You know,” she stuttered out after a few minutes of silence. She seemed reluctant to say what she wanted to. “I-If you ever wanted your o-old job back, it’s always open. I c-could use some extra help.”

“nah.” Sans answered, easily and honestly, accompanied by his usual casual shrug. “i love science, alphys, but it’s not for me.” 

Alphys eyes narrowed and she shook her head, looking Sans dead on. “I-I dont believe that, Sans. Y-You loved this job. Y-You told me that y-yourself. Why did you l-leave?”

Sans opened his mouth to lie, to deflect or to make some sort of pun to shut down the situation as fast as he could, but he let out a defeated sigh once he realized none of those things would really help in the end. “i felt weird here.” He murmured, shrugging as his hand clenched into fists. “i felt like someone was always watching me. it got too weird, so...i left.” 

Alphys nodded softly. “B-Between me and you, I-I feel that way too.” She murmured. Both Sans and Papyrus’ heads shot up in surprise, although Papyrus just looked generally confused and baffled as to what his brother and friend were on about. 

“you do?”

“Y-Yes, I...s-sometimes, I feel l-like someone’s just...l-lurking. I turn corners slowly out of f-fear that someone’s gonna be sitting t-there. It’s...i-it’s freaky.”

Sans nodded immediately. “that was my feeling, but it was...intense. it wasn’t just like someone was watching me, it felt like someone wanted to...grab me.”

In unison, all three heads turned towards the door, breaths held as they waited for someone to enter. 

No one did. 

“YOU GUYS ARE FREAKING ME OUT!” Papyrus cried, stomping his foot with his eyes scrunched tightly closed. “THERE’S NO ONE HERE! WE’RE ALONE! LET’S...LET’S JUST GET WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO DONE!”

Sans laughed awkwardly and shook his head. “sorry, paps. you’re right. there’s no one here, doc. we’re probably just both a little crazy.” He swirled his finger in a circle motion by his head, laughing despite the fact his eyes betrayed how freaked out he really was. Alphys, not wanting to think about it any longer, nodded eagerly with agreement and rushed to do what she wanted. 

She performed three different tests, all of them relatively easy and painless. The last one, however, she knew would be a stretch to ask for, so she reluctantly cleared her throat to interrupt the side conversation the two brothers were having. 

“U-Um...I-I have a bit of an extreme q-question, and I-if you’re not comfortable d-doing this, that’s f-fine! I, um...I-I want to take a full scan of S-Sans body to study separate levels, b-but...it would r-require me strapping you to a table to ensure that you d-don’t move. I...Is that okay...?”

Immediately, Sans soul screamed at him not to. For some reason, the idea of being strapped down filled him with such undeniable fear and sizzling anger. The idea left a queasy, shifting feeling in his stomach. Despite his best interest, he swallowed these thoughts and forced a tight smile and a nod.

“yeah, sure. why not.”

Alphys shoulders physically sagged as she thanked the other a thousand times over, reassuring him that they could stop at any point if needed. Sans glanced to his side, meeting the eyes of his concerned and annoyed-looking brother. 

“what’s that look for, bro?”

“I KNOW YOU BETTER THAN YOU THINK, SANS. YOU DIDN’T WANT TO DO THIS.”

Sans laughed and shrugged slightly. “it won’t do any harm, i’m just freaked out for no reason.”

Papyrus let out a soft groan and stomped his foot slightly. “DON’T TALK LIKE THAT! DON’T MAKE YOURSELF DO SOMETHING YOU DON’T WANT TO DO, I-“

“paps.” Sans placed a hand on his brothers shoulder, only removing it to tug his shirt back on and his sweatshirt afterwards. “don’t freak out, bro. you heard alphys. if i want, we’ll stop.”

Papyrus’ frown stuck on his face, but he seemed slightly more convinced. “HNNG...FINE, BUT IF YOU FEEL OR SHOW ANY SIGNS OF DISCOMFORT AT ALL BROTHER, WE ARE STOPPING! IS THAT CLEAR?”

“crystal, pap.”

“GOOD.”

Fifteen minutes later, Sans was about as far from “good” as he could pretty much get. 

The clasps around his skull were too tight, and his arms felt like they could barely move. His eyes had no where else to look but the bright light in front of him, and the sides of his vision seemed to blur in and out of panic. Alphys kept reassuring him - “I’m almost done, just a few more minutes” but those minutes felt like unending hours, and the thumping in his skull was getting louder and louder, and it felt like he was losing the world around him, and-

“alphys.” He wheezed out. He could practically hear Papyrus scolding him to be honest about his feelings in his head. “p-pap, i need to get out.”

Immediately, he heard some shuffling, but the sounds were getting muffled and they felt far away. He was heaving now, struggling desperately to get his breathing under control with absolutely zero results. The world around him was spinning and faces flashed in front of him. For the half a second they were there, he felt a pang of familiarity within his soul ; but then, as soon as they were gone, the feeling was as well. He couldn’t breath, and he could practically feel his bones rattling. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he recognized two distinct voices desperately yelling his name, but it was almost like he was underwater. Unreachable. 

His left eye exploded into a bright blue flame and almost instinctively, his arms flew to protect his head, realizing that he was now finally free from the clasps that had held him down and restrained him. He grasped his skull and pulled it between his legs, going into a self-defensive position. “please..” He rasped out, voice heavy from the tears. “don’t hurt me, Ga-“

“SANS!”

His eyes flew open, immediately meeting with the concerned and tearful eyes of his brother. He started to slowly take in his surroundings ; he was on a bench, with a sore feeling in his wrists and cuffs laying on either side of him. An inactive machine loomed above, pushed away and deactivated haphazardly, telling from its position. Two people - Alphys, the Royal scientist, and Papyrus, his baby brother, stood in front of him. They both looked concerned. 

“SANS!” Before the older of the two was able to say anything, he was forcefully tugged into his brothers arms, hugging him tightly and mumbling about how they were both okay. Sans must’ve looked shaken up and confused, because the scientist moved shakily to explain. 

“Y..You had a panic attack. Y-You told us to stop, so we did, but you were j-just hyperventilating, and n-nothing we were doing was...was calming you down.”

“oh, jeez...” sans frowned as he wrapped his arms around his brother, giving Papyrus’ back a few pats of reassurance. “sorry, alphys, sorry, paps. i must’ve really rattled ya, huh?” He chuckled a little to himself. 

His brother rolled his eyes, but still seemed concerned. “IT’S OKAY BROTHER. ARE...YOU FEELING BETTER NOW? ONE HUNDRED PERCENT?”

“i’m all good, paps.” Sans winked, pulling away from his brother and rubbing the side of his skull. He wasn’t even lying ; he felt fine, besides the slight pain echoing in the back of his head and the constant feeling of being watched he always had in this place. 

God, he needed to take a walk. A breath. 

“hey, alphys? d’ya mind if i use your bathroom?”

“S-Sure, go ahead! I-it’s right through that door, a-and then take a left.”

Sans nodded, quickly thanking her before jumping down from the table he had been laying on. He shoved his hands into his pockets instinctively, pulling his sweatshirt as close as he could ; almost as if it would protect him. He was only walking for a few moments before he was realizing Papyrus was following him, and stopped for a moment to allow his brother to catch up. 

“you don’t have to follow me everything, you know.” He chuckled, but Papyrus just let out a “HMF” in response. 

“WELL, I WANT TO. WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT, SANS? WHY DID YOU GET SO...FREAKED OUT?”

Sans shrugged, shooting his brother his signature smile. “guess i just have a bone to pick with tight spaces, bro.” His brother shot him a look, clearly begging him to be serious about this. Sans rubbed the back of his head. “okay, okay. t’be honest? no clue why i reacted like that. i was just..fine, and then i wasn’t. it was almost like-“ he cut himself off, coming to an abrupt stop and freezing where he was. 

“SANS?” Papyrus asked, stopping as soon as he realized his brother wasn’t with him and glancing back over his shoulder to see what the hold up was. Just like before, Sans had stopped in front of the same, bleak door, staring at it with a blank and emotionless look on his face. “SANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? THIS HAPPENED EARLIER-“

“this door is weird.” Sans answered honestly, looking at his brother, but then immediately back at the entrance. He felt too creeped out to not have his eyes on it. “it doesn’t...feel right. do you feel like that?”

“HMM....” papyrus rubbed his chin and took a few steps forwards, frowning a bit. “I SUPPOSE A LITTLE. BUT I’M SURE IT’S NOTHING BROTHER, WE SHOULD HEAD BACK TO DOCTOR ALPHYS IF YOU DONT HAVE TO ACTUALLY USE THE BATHROOM-“

Both brothers froze as a deep, chillingly familiar laugh filled the hallways. Papyrus turned to ask Sans what that was, but froze in place when he saw the look of terror and utter confusion painted across his brothers features. 

They both had their back to the door, so neither noticed when it began to creep open. And, when two hands shot out and grabbed the brothers, pulling them both in with one quick motion, neither of them had enough time to scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!
> 
> Sorry for how long this took to get out! It’s a big chapter so I was hoping on reviewing it a lot before posting it, but life kinda caught up with me and I haven’t had the time. I didn’t want to wait any longer though, so here it is! I may end up editing this in the future, but they’ll be small tweaks, hopefully. 
> 
> I wanna thank everyone who pointed out that in a few areas I gave the monsters human actions! A few times I said things like “sans bit his lip” or something like it and I didn’t even catch it while editing because it’s so innate to me, so thank you! I’m hoping to go back and fix that stuff later, as well. 
> 
> Thank you all for your patience! As I’ve said before, this story is MASSIVELY based on Handplates by zarla-s on tumblr, but I also really heavily based it on another comic! It’s called Time Scar and it’s by C-Puff on DeviantArt! It’s a great comic & if you enjoy Sans angst I heavily recommend it. 
> 
> I hope u all enjoyed the chapter & hopefully the next one will be up tomorrow or the day after to make up for the long wait with this one!


	5. Chapter 5

A tight groan slipped its way from Sans as his shaking hand instinctively reached up, cradling a thudding skull. His other hand moved underneath him, unsteadily pushing his body into an upright and sitting position as he struggled to take in the world around him.

Everything was...dark. He was in some sort of room, but all the lights were off, so making out any sorts of details was near impossible. He sat there for a few moments, blindly trying to get his bearings, before being ripped away from his train of thought by the low and equally-as-pained groan of his baby brother.

“papyrus?” He called out in a hushed and rushed tone, quickly clambering to his feet and almost falling over twice in his rush. He stumbled towards the sound, vision still blurry and making it hard to coordinate his way through movement. Eventually, he collapsed by the lump that appeared to be his brothers’ side, grabbing his shoulder and giving him a thorough shake. 

“pap! papyrus! bro, come on, wake up...” he felt his hands trembling as he tried desperately to wake the other, thoughts rushing through his mind at an alarming pace. Papyrus wasn’t dust in his hands, so he wasn’t dead. On the same hand, he wasn’t waking up, and they were in some random ass place that Sans is...pretty sure he’s never seen before, and-

“SANS!” Like a miracle sent from above, Papyrus shot up from where he was laying, eye exploding with a beautiful orange gradient. He sat frozen for a moment before immediately looking to his side, connecting eyes with his shocked and speechless brother. For a moment, there was silence, his expression shifting from relief to concern. Sans broke it when he squeaked, caught off guard by Papyrus throwing his arms around the other dramatically and pressing his brother close. 

“SANS! YOU’RE OKAY! I...I HAD THIS DREAM, A-AND...”

Sans rubbed the others back comfortingly, frowning as he heard his brother choking back tears. Papyrus was never very good hiding distress, especially in stressful situations. “shh, don’t worry bro. it was just a dream. even though...i’m not entirely sure where we are...”

That seemed to snap Papyrus out his near hysterics as he leaned backwards, letting out a few sniffles and swiping his cheeks clean as he glanced around the room. “I...IT’S TOO DARK. I CAN’T MAKE ANYTHING OUT.”

Sans frowned softly, nodding in agreement. “stay here, i have an idea.” He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, funneling all of his magic to the front of his mind. When his eyes opened once more, one was bursting with a familiar blue light, illuminating the small area around them. He rose to his feet, bringing Papyrus up with him and keeping a good lock on his hand, just in case they got lost. 

Slowly, trying to be as thorough as possible, he began to move along the walls of the room, searching for any type of light switch or an entrance into the room. He let out a groan when he couldn’t find anything, but an immediate gasp of surprise when his hands made contact with the unmistakable glass of a door. 

“a door, pap.” He whispered to the other, trying to keep his voice down just in case. They really did have no idea where they were. “should we open it?”

“I DON’T SEE ANYTHING ELSE WE CAN DO, BROTHER.”

Sans nodded, and pushed open the door with a shaky hand, wincing as it creaked and screamed in protest. Once open, however, it revealed to them a hall ; a plain, simple hall, not as dark as before but made of concrete and nothing else. Sans took a tentative step forward, waiting for a few agonizing moments before waving for Papyrus to follow suit. His brother did, enthusiastically sticking to Sans side and occasionally tightly squeezing his hand. Sans would always return the gesture. 

“let’s just...explore.” Sans mumbled, shrugging emptily towards his brother. “not sure what else there is to do.” His brother nodded in agreement, and they began to walk. 

That first, long corridor lead to another of the exact same set up, then another, and another. Sans was absolutely convinced they were just going in circles after he passed the exact same crack in the concrete wall for the third time. 

He turned to his brother to express this theory, but both brothers stopped dead in their tracks as the silence of the hallways was shattered into a million pieces. 

Screaming. Loud, desperate screaming ; screams full of pain and anguish and suffering. They were hurt, they were unhappy.

“what the hell is that?!” Sans cried over the loud noises, hand hovering over his soul in attempts to keep himself calm in such a confusing and disorienting situation. Papyrus had naturally gravitated towards his brother, a look of surprise and slight fear dashing across his face. 

“I’M NOT SURE, BUT WE...WE HAVE TO FIND IT!” He cried, gripping Sans hands and beginning to drag him in the direction of the screams. He let the fear that plagued his shoulders and mind melt away from visibility ; he had to be strong and protect his precious brother. Sans had done a lot for him over the years without Papyrus even knowing, and Papyrus figured it was probably time to repay that favor. He would take control here. 

“paps-“ Sans hissed, trying desperately to slow the other down by digging his heels into the ground. Too bad Sans was about half of Papyrus’ weight ; if he even weighed that much. All that eating certainly expanded his stomach, but considering the fact he was made out of literal calcium, that didn’t seem to matter all that much. “paps, bad idea, we don’t even know what’s happening here-“

“SO LET’S LEARN!” Papyrus cried and only tugged harder, forcing Sans to follow behind him. “ALL I KNOW IS THAT SOMEONE IS IN PAIN, AND WE CAN HELP THEM!”

He felt his brothers protests ease up until his grip on the others arm had detached and Sans was just running behind him, struggling to keep up with his brothers long strides. The taller of the two found a smile on his face despite the severity of the situation ; his brother trusted him. 

Eventually, through following the seemingly never ending screams, Papyrus had lead them through the maze of twists and turns to a small door. It looked exactly like the one they had originally exited from, but small environment changes (mostly just the cracks on the wall) hinted that they were somewhere completely different. 

Papyrus took a deep breath, placing a hand on the door and giving Sans a warning looking. His brother flinched, huddling ever so slightly closer to the taller of the two and holding his jacket noticeably closer to his body. With a huff and a shove, Papyrus slammed open the door, yelling “STOP! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS HERE TO STO-” he cut himself off as his mind took in the horrors of the room. 

In front of them was a small medical table, almost identical to the one Sans had been laying on in Alphys lab minutes ago. 

What seemed like minutes, anyways.

Surrounding the table was smaller ones of various sizes, all holding some amount of tools. Some of them seemed harmless ; magnifying glasses and devises for measuring levels, like the ones that Alphys had, but noticeably older. Some of the tools, however, were scarier. Large rays that put a pit in both brothers stomachs and sharp, pointy edges that had probably been used for...well, neither of them really wanted to think about that. 

The biggest thing, of course, was the skeleton strapped to the chair. He seemed young, only seven years or so old, if that. His frame was small, frail and obviously weak. A ray was pointed downwards towards his eye, the sending beams of sizzling and cracking light directly into the center of his right iris. The boy was screaming as loud as he could, wriggling in pain. His left eye was glowing a bright, bright blue, but his right was consumed only by the yellow laser. 

Papyrus was the first to snap out of the pure shock that had consumed them. He cried out in fear and pity, shooting forward while looking at his brother. “S-SANS! HELP ME! WE HAVE TO GET HIM OUT!”

Sans felt his shoulders tense and his head move in a nodding motion, stuck processing before reality flowed back to him. He shot forward to assist the other, the screams planting a seed of quickly growing fear in his stomach. Something about that voice sounded so familiar, but he had no idea why he was having a thought like that at this moment. 

Papyrus stood at one side of the bed and Sans was situated at the other, each of them reaching towards the right leather straps that kept the young skeleton in place. He didn’t seem to have noticed either of them yet, although, granted, he would probably be quite distracted. 

Papyrus wrapped his fingers around one of the clasps and desperately pulled away, wanting to free the poor baby as soon as he could. To his immediate surprise, however, he realized when he yanked back that he hadn’t been holding on to anything in the first place. He tried again, gasping with shock as his hand just floated uselessly through the small area of leather. With a shaking stature, he reached out his left arm experimentally, watching as it passed through the table without an issue. It was almost as if he were just a ghost. He looked up to ask Sans, but the shocked look on his brothers face told him he had already made his own discoveries. They connected eyes as the skeleton in front of them continued to scream endlessly. 

“W-WE HAVE TO HELP HIM!” Papyrus cried desperately, tears welling at the sides of his eyes as his eardrums were filled with the sound of pure pain and suffering. Sans opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a deep laugh from the dark corner of the room interrupted their thoughts. 

“Well, well...some things never change, do they?”

Just like that, the screaming seized. Sans and Papyrus stared down at the child with wide and shocked eyes ; he seemed frozen in place. He wasn’t breathing, twitching, moving in any way possible. He stared up at the ceiling with the same dead, hopeless eyes as before. For a moment, fear overtook both of their souls entirely - had this poor boy just died in front of them?

Then, both brothers looked towards the corner that was now filled with light, and a feeling of unfamiliar dread consumed the both of them. 

Standing against the wall was a tall man ; a skeleton, just like them. He had his arms crossed, a long lab coat ending right above his feet. Large, gaping holes sat in the center of his hands, and a crack ran its way from the top of his head to the base of his eye, another from the same eye to the top of where his lips assumably would be. He stared at them like they were a meal ; he looked greedy, corrupted, and the twitch in his eyes, accompanied with the raggedy grin he was sporting, pointed in the direction of insanity. 

“Some things never change, Papyrus. You’ll always be protective, I suspect.”

“W...WHAT...?” Papyrus stuttered out, confusion written across his features. Sans immediately moved to guard his brother in a defensive stance, so many alarms going off in his head at the sight of this man and how his brother was being talked to that he wasn’t sure how to process them all. 

The man sighed deeply and reached up, placing a hand where his temple would be and seeming to think for a moment. His eyes narrowed when they landed on Sans, an even crueler smile dancing across his face. 

“Ah...you go by Sans now, right? Very unoriginal.”

Sans eyes widened and he looked at the man, anger coursing through his body. “what the hell does that mean? that’s my name. who are you, and where are we?!” Swearing in front of Papyrus felt wrong. If it were anyone else, he would’ve ripped them apart. The alarms spoke louder than thoughts, he supposed. 

The man took a step forward, and Sans felt Papyrus’ hand on his shoulder, gently guiding his brothers body behind his own. Papyrus’ mind screamed at him to protect the smaller skeleton, and although he wasn’t entirely sure what from quite yet, he wouldn’t hesitate to listen. His brother deserved some protecting, anyways. 

The man scoffed. “It seems you’ve failed one of your main objectives.” He sighed, hands returning to rub side of his head, as if soothing a headache. A theoretical headache, anyways. “No matter. I shouldn’t have taken us here first. My apologizes, this is my first time doing this. My first time speaking to the both of you at once since I became like this.” He smiled, taking a few more steps forward. “Come along, son,” the warm smile he gifted Papyrus quickly turned cold when he glanced at Sans, detached and cold of any sentimental emotion. “and other. Let’s start from the beginning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter today - like I promised!
> 
> The stories getting a bit deeper now, hm? 
> 
> Next chapter should be up in a few days - thank you all for reading & hope you enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

Before either skeleton, both filled with shock and a million questions shooting through their heads, could react, a hand was placed on each of their shoulders and the world around them melted. 

For a moment, they felt absolutely nothing. They lost their grip on one another - the tightness accompanied with holding a hand and the feeling of bone against bone was all gone. There was no cold, no warmth, no temperature at all. There was no sound, absolute, deafening silence being the only thing left. They had their eyes open, but there was no light to be found, even directly in front of them. It was absolutely nothing, they were in absolutely nothingness, and it HURT. 

When the skeleton brothers opened their eyes again, they were gripping each other for dear life, their breaths held and bones filling the room with the sounds of rattles. 

The same scene was presented to them, with some key and obvious differences. It was darker this time ; the boy was gone, and so was the table he had been laying on. Instead, there was a small desk tucked into the corner, a computer sitting on top with a man in front of it, sitting with his head cradled in his hands. In front of him was a note pad, nothing written on it and an abandoned pencil laying off to the side. 

On closer inspection, it was easy to figure out who the man sitting by the desk was. Sans looked behind them, gripping Papyrus’ arm a little tighter instinctually. Despite the fact the mysterious lab-coat wearing man was literally sitting in the chair in front of them, he also stood behind them, arms crossed and an annoyed look on his face. 

“care to explain?” Sans prompted, but the man just shook his head, placing a finger over his mouth to silence the other. Papyrus had his eyes trained on the man in front of them, eyes squinting. It looked as if he were slowly putting something together in his head, piece by piece. 

Suddenly, the scientist in the chair let out a desperate groan, slamming his head forward and squeezing it in between his hands. Both brothers jumped, but watched cautiously. It was clear at this point that, for whatever reason, the man wasn’t able to see them. 

“I just can’t get it!” The man grumbled, standing up and shoving the chair away from him. He began to pace, causing for Papyrus to immediately back up and away with Sans in tow, figuring the scientist probably needed room. The older brother was cautious to keep away from the man behind them, though. 

 

“I don’t get it! I tried everything.” He removed his glasses angrily and rubbed at his temples, shoulders tense. “I tried making it from determination extracts, I tried making it from other monsters, I tried...” he groaned, shaking his head. “I tried everything! I feel like I’ve put my soul into this project and nothing is work-“ suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the wall in front of him with wide eyes. “That’s it.” He mumbled and rushed back over to his seat, typing away at the computer and only pausing to scribble a few things down on the paper in front of him. 

“IS THAT...YOU?” Papyrus asked with a weak voice, knowing the answer but wanting the confirmation. He glanced behind him, seeing the man with a smile on his face. 

“Yes, son. I’m telling you a story. You will see many different memories, but you cannot interact with anyone in them, since they are just that - memories. You cannot change them. They cannot see you, only you can see them.” He smiled, the look in his eyes going cold and devoid of affection when he turned his gaze to Sans. “This’ll put a lot of the pieces to your little puzzle together, hm? I’m sure that’s all you’ve wanted for a long time.”

Sans growled, squeezing Papyrus’ hand tightly and holding the glare of the man as tightly as he could. “whatever it is i’m supposed to be learning, i definitely would rather never know it than have you stick us wherever the hell here is. why are you talking like that? am i supposed to understand what’s going on?” 

The man groaned and rubbed the sides of his head. “Please, you’re as annoying as ever. That always was your biggest flaw ; you’re so snappy. You never shut the fuck up when you’re angry. It really was a pain.”

Sans clenched his fists and moved to warn the other not to swear in front of his brother, but Papyrus’ hand on his shoulder stopped him. 

“IF WE GO THROUGH WITH ALL OF THIS,” Papyrus asked, voice surprisingly firm. “WILL YOU LET US GO?”

The man in front of them shrugged. “I’ll do something to that effect. .”

Neither of them knew what he meant, but they would have to take it for now. 

The scene flashed again, the desk, chair and computer disappearing this time, being replaced with a large, circular container in the center of the room. It was filled to the top with a blue liquid, and floating in the middle was a young looking skeleton - the same one from before, but considerably younger. He looked more like a baby than a child, two or three years old, perhaps. He was fast asleep, attached to several different wires that protruded from the sides. To left stood the scientist, scribbling down notes with an excited glint in his eyes. 

“The experiment is functioning.” He mumbled along with his words, a large smile spreading across his face. “Although I’ve designed him to have the physical body of a seven or eight year old by the time he comes out, my calculations say he’ll develop mentally rather quickly. If, that is, he’s sentient. I can only watch. He should wake up in a few hours.” He sighed, tucking his pen away and taking a step back to admire his creation. Pride and greed swarmed his eyes. 

“you better wake up.” He murmured, placing a hand on the tub and staring inside at the boy. There, the boy floated, unresponsive. 

The scene shifted. Whatever the skeleton boy is, he was awake. He’s sitting at the end of the table, peering around with wide and adorably curious eyes. A limp, plain grey hospital gown hangs down to his ankles, revealing a slightly plump baby belly. The scientist stood in front of him, scribbling down notes and snapping at the child to pay attention. 

“What are you?” His voice is loud and commands attention. The child’s head shoots up and he responds shakily in a voice full of cracks and familiarity. 

“I am project S4NS.”

Papyrus’ head shoots up and fear grips his heart. The reality comes crashing down on him all too fast and all too suddenly, but then, he understands. His hold on his shorter brother immediately tightens as his brain makes all the connections. Sans seemed too shocked to do so, but Papyrus understands. 

He understands now. 

“NO...” he croaks out, feeling tears in his eyes. He looks from the young boy in front of them to his precious brother and feels his heart cracking. He can’t help but let out an empty sob, leaning down and engulfing his brother in his arms. 

“w-wha? pap, are you okay?!” Sans is immediately concerned, arms wrapping around the other in response and immediately rubbing his back in hopes to keep him calm. He was too shocked, too much going through his mind for him to sort through for him to have fully connected the dots yet. In the back of his head, however, whether he realizes it at all, memories are beginning to piece themselves together. 

“Surprising.” The man behind them laughed, both brothers shakily looking towards them. Papyrus felt an unfamiliar, cold and distant feeling reel in his chest, and he held Sans a little closer. He was afraid of the man in front of them, but even more, he was...he was mad. He was scared, and mad, and the feeling of rage was so unfamiliar and scary but once he had realized the situation placed in front of them, he couldn’t scrub those mad thoughts away even if he tried. 

“I never thought Papyrus would be the first one to figure it out.” The eyes landed on Sans, a cruelly jokingly look swimming in his eyes. “You’ve become slow, project S.”

“project...” both Sans brother and the man in front of them watched as his eyes widened and realization dawned on him. For a moment, he just stared forward, Papyrus holding him desperately and the man staring forward with that same cruel smile. 

Then, Sans laughed. 

He let out a weak chuckle, turning into a giggle, and then a full out laugh. The entire time, he was shaking, tears dotting at the edge of his eyes and threatening to fall. His bones rattled from how hard he was quaking, hands gripping Papyrus’ desperately. 

“i was a science experiment.” He mumbled, his voice betraying him, thick with the tears and breaking from the desperation. “i...i remember. i was an experiment.”

He looked up, smiling weakly at the scientist in front of him. “gaster. why are you back? what even happened to you?”

Gaster laughed at this, shaking his head as he watched the two skeleton brothers. “You were a part of my downfall, project S. I made you, and you abandoned me.”

“you made me,” Sans spat, a look of pure anger appearing. “and you tortured me.”

“I gave you life, nonetheless. You, however, were more intent on my son than on doing your job.”

“don’t bring paps into this.” Sans spat, hand shaking against Papyrus’. “He was just a baby. He was months old!”

“W...WHAT...?” Papyrus stuttered out, looking from his brother to the tall man in front of them. “S...SON...?”

Gaster’s anger look immediately flipped, joy and love taking over his eyes as he looked into the taller skeletons eyes. “Yes, boy. I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to talk to you for so long, but I am here now. I am your father, Doctor W. D. Gaster. I,” He shot a pointed look towards Sans, who only growled in response. “I am your real family. Your only family.”

“N..NO.” Papyrus stuttered out, shaking his head as he hugged Sans closer to him. “YOU’RE WRONG. MAYBE YOU ARE MY FATHER, BUT SANS IS MY FAMILY. Y-YOU CAN’T CHANGE THAT.”

“Oh really?” Gaster cooed, looking amusedly at his child’s look of despair, desperation and confusion. “Perhaps I need to show you, then.”

The scene shifted. 

Sans sat at a small table, a bowl of food in front of him as he eagerly dug in. He still looked starving, bouncing excitedly in his seat as he consumed more and more. Gaster sat opposite to him, regarding the child with a look of relative disgust as he scribbled down some notes. 

“Slow down.” He snapped eventually, growing tired of the sounds and visuals. “You are absolutely disgusting. I should’ve focused on manners.”

Sans scoffed, giving the man a pointed look as he only ate faster, stomach grumbling for more as he did so. “not my fault you didn’t feed me.” He mumbled in between bites, eyes darting up to see if he had crossed some sort of line. Gaster simply smiled in a sick sort of response. 

“Please, you didn’t eat for two days. You’ll live.”

Sans finished up and pushed the bowl away, leaning his head on his hand and grinning towards the other in a teasing sort of way. Papyrus felt himself smile, if only a little ; his brother was as feisty as ever. It filled him with a certain level of pride to see Sans with an unbroken spirit, refusing to give in to whatever this horrible man was feeding him. 

“you were gone for two days. where were you?”

“That’s nothing I have to tell you.” Gaster replied simply, rising to his feet. “I’m going to start some new.”

“oh, great. how bad will it hurt this time? do you feel like taking out my eyes, maybe? my legs? my legs would be a great time.”

“Enough.” Gaster growled and turned on his heels, giving the boy a pointed look to signify the end of his backtalk. Sans fell quiet, but did not drop the glaring look he possessed when he looked at the man. “Goodness, where did you learn this snippy attitude of yours?”

“you were teaching me how to read,” Sans hummed with a small smile, “and you gave me a book about the outside world. i’m not stupid. i know that how i’m being treated is pretty shit.” 

Real Sans winced at the curse word, feeling bad for Papyrus hearing it. 

“Ah, yes. I did, didn’t I? I gave you that and stomach stupid animal-joke book so you could understand the concept of onomatopoeias.” Gaster groaned and shook his head, walking over to the bookcase in the corner of the room and fishing for something. He pulled out a small rubix cube, walking back to the table and settling himself in his seat before sliding it over to Sans. The young skeleton caught it, a look of curiosity bubbling in his eyes. 

“what’s this?” He asked, holding it up to the light and shifting it around. He examined the different colors with intrigue. Gaster hummed and wrote something down on his notepad before explaining. 

“It’s a puzzle. Solve it.” 

“okay, but...how do i do that?”

“Figure it out.” 

Sans opened his mouth, then allowed it to fall close again immediately. He began to fiddle with the small cube in his hands, figuring out rather quickly that he could shift the colors, but only full rows at a time. The two fully grown brothers watched in slight shock as the baby bones moved his hands quickly, placing the complete cube in front of him about thirty seconds later. 

The Gaster in front of Sans rolled his eyes. “A little slow.” He murmured, scribbling the time down. The real Sans scoffed. “a little harsh on a kid, huh?” He spat, turning to face the man. Gaster shrugged. 

“You haven’t seen everything yet, Project S. You will understand in due time why I expect so much.”

For the first time in a while, Papyrus spoke up. He had been decidedly quiet as he watched his brother and the man who claimed to be his father bicker it out, knowing that his voice would betray him if he attempted to speak. The feeling that froze his bones and clutched his heart was still all too real, and it was so new and unfamiliar to Papyrus that it scared him. He didn’t know how to react, didn’t know how to handle it ; all he could do was focus on his brother, alive and well in his arms, and focus on his need to keep it that way. All he wanted was for Sans to be safe. His brother was in no immediate danger, but Papyrus couldn’t find it in him to trust anything in their surroundings at the moment. 

“PLEASE, DO NOT REFER TO MY BROTHER AS ‘PROJECT’. IT’S QUITE RUDE. HE’S SANS.”

Gaster scoffed, staring at his - apparent - son and rolling his eyes. “Again, Papyrus, he is not your brother-“

“HE IS.”

Gaster kept talking as if the interruption never happened, his fists tightening. “He is not. And he is, by definition, a project of mine. An experiment. I made him.”

“YOU DIDN’T MAKE ALL OF HIM.” Papyrus answered simply, looking the man dead in the eyes as his grip on his brother tightened naturally. The memory behind them was completely frozen as he spoke, as Gaster was too preoccupied to play it. “YOU MAY HAVE MADE...HIM, BUT SANS IS STILL SANS. HE IS NOT WHATEVER PURPOSE YOU MADE HIM FOR AND NOTHING ELSE. YOU SAID YOURSELF THAT YOU DIDN’T LIKE HOW QUICK AN SARCASTIC HE WAS. THAT MEANS YOU DIDN’T CHOOSE THAT TRAIT.”

Gaster snarled at the two and shook his head. “Don’t fight me, Papyrus. I finally reunite with you after all these years, and you’re defending the mistake?”

“DON’T CALL HIM THAT EITHER!” Papyrus’ voice raised and the passion bubbling within him was undeniable. “HE’S...HE’S NOT A MISTAKE! HE’S MY STRONG, BRAVE, AMAZING BROTHER!! HE’S THE FURTHEST THING FROM A MISTAKE IMAGINABLE.”

Gaster took a deep breath, shaking his head to calm himself before talking. “You still do not understand, Papyrus. You were not around, and even when you were, you were too young to remember. Please, son. Watch, and you will understand.”

“I CAN TELL YOU RIGHT NOW THAT NOTHING WILL CHANGE MY OPINION OF SANS.” Papyrus answered honestly, sighing as he looked at the man. ‘Everyone can be good if they try!’ the voice in the back of his head chanted, desperate to be heard. He listened as hard as he could, let out a soft breath to calm down, and then looked down at his older brother to assess Sans’ situation. Admittedly, holding him had gotten awkward a little while ago and Sans had patted Paps’ shoulder more than a couple of times to let him know it was okay to put him down, but Papyrus wasn’t having any of it. His brother had just learned literally everything he had been raised in was a lie. Papyrus was going to be there for him. 

Sans seemed...empty. He stared at the scene in front of them with hollow eyes and a hollow expression. Tear tracks stained his face, dried and forgotten. 

Papyrus hated it. What he wouldn’t do to hear a pun right then and there. Maybe he would even laugh a little. Maybe he would proudly state he was smiling. 

Papyrus glanced up as the scene changed again. He gave Sans a squeeze before paying attention. 

It was later that same night, with Gaster hunched over his records, eyes scanning them rapidly. He began to talk out loud, the words on his papers and screen just as illegible as before. The man was mumbling, making him hard to hear, and occasionally he would pause what he was saying, noticeably hit the backspace key on his keyboard, and then reword it. Sans and Papyrus listened closely to the words. 

“Project S is already exhibiting a much higher intelligence than even I could have guessed.” Gaster mumbled along as he typed. “I must keep pushing him to see how far he can go. He has a part of me in him, so obviously he would be noticeably smarter than most others. The efforts I made to speed up his aging process worked. He learned how to talk in two hours, and despite having a body of perhaps a six or seven year old, he will have the mental capacity of what I estimate to be a twelve or thirteen year old in an also estimated two days.”

He stumbled for a moment, seeming contemplative over whether or not he should write the next thing. Shrugging, he typed and mumbled. “I have been feeling groggy lately, but aside from that, I feel no side effects of having a small portion of my soul removed. I can only hope that the lack of energy will not lead to unwise decisions. I will be extra careful with every step I take with this specimen. If Asgore were to stumble down here and find a young boy, I am not sure what he would do to me.”

Sans eyes widened. He was on the floor again now, although Papyrus stayed extremely close as they watched the scene together. “my...i have a part of your soul in me.”

The Gaster behind them sneered. “Pay attention. I will explain everything he does not.”

“Despite Subject S having a part of me within him, he and I are...extremely differing when it comes to personalities. He is quick, sarcastic, witty and a complete and utter pain. He has a sharp response to almost everything I say almost immediately. I wonder how he developed these skills with no one around to demonstrate them, but I have a theory that, since he is made of a part of me, he has some basic monster traits, whether he realizes it or not. The soul might have carried over things I have experienced or learned.” He winced a little before continuing to write. “Perhaps Subject S and I are less different than I would enjoy to admit. No matter. As long as he understands his place, I do not care how he responds.”

The memory Gaster sighed. “It would have been much easier if he were not sentient, but that was a miscalculation on my part. At least he is interesting to observe. I am excited to learn where he goes and how he will develop. He better be useful in the end, though. If I cannot use him how I wish, perhaps I’ll study him for a while more before terminating the project.”

Papyrus squeaked with fear and covered his mouth, fear wide in his eyes. He may have been innocent, but he wasn’t stupid ; he understood the connotations behind that statement. 

The gaster in the memory rose to his feet, shutting out of the notes program and walking over to the desk to do something else. The memory froze, and both brothers looked behind them, Sans expression unreadable while Papyrus’ was of desperation. 

“so explain.” Sans spoke finally, sighing and hugging his sweatshirt a little closer to him. This information wasn’t exactly easy to fully wrap his head around, especially when it was all crashing down on him at once. “you took a part of your soul, and used it to make me. cool. but why?”

“Sans, you are about...” Gaster stared forward for a few minutes, a confused and annoyed look crossing his eyes. “How old are you, now?”

“seems like your genius memory is failing you.” Sans sneered, and the young boy they were just watching was immediately recognizable behind his voice. “i’m thirty.”

“YOURE THIRTY-ONE.” Papyrus corrected softly, 

“Exactly.” Gaster avoided the statement. “Thirty years ago, I was trying desperately to find out a solution to the problem of not having enough human souls to exit the underground, but we monsters did not have the proper technology for me to grow one by hand or manufacture one. The only logical path to take was to use a soul that already existed, so I took the easy route. Science is not always painless.” Gaster shrugged, arms crossed as his white lab coat shifted at his knees. “My goal was to make a powerful soul, and although you didn’t surpass my expectations, or fill the needed requirements, you were a new, interesting invention.”

“A SOUL IS NOT AN INVENTION.” Papyrus interjected, shaking his head. “IT’S A SOUL. A MONSTER.”

He was ignored. 

Sans sneered. “you wanted to create a soul as strong as a humans, huh? must’ve been quite a disappointment when you made a one-hp runt.” 

Gaster shook his head and the world around them began to melt and shift. “You were not made with one HP, S. You were created strong, with a sufficient defense. Your low HP was a mistake on my behalf made early on during an experiment.”

The two brothers looked forward, back to the young Sans and younger Gaster. Sans stood in the center of the room, his hospital gown falling even looser than before. He looked nervous, bright white eyes darted everywhere in search for whatever he was afraid of. Gaster stood off to the side, humming as he continuing to write on his clipboard, recording the subjects reaction and overall mood. 

Seeing his baby brother that nervous and scared filled Papyrus with an inflamed sense of...whatever the dark, red feeling was that implanted itself in his soul and burned brightly. Every part of him was screaming to run out and help the baby bones, to protect his brother, but he knew any efforts he could make were fruitless. For now, he stayed with his dear, precious, current brother. Although Sans was doing a good job at hiding it behind a straight face and unwavering eyes, Papyrus knew his brother better than anyone else, and he knew Sans was shaken up from the information being presented to him. He couldn’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t be. 

“what am i doing?” The baby bones asked shakily, looking to the tall scientist studying him. Faster placed down the clipboard, connecting eyes with the obviously nervous boy. His expression stayed straight and emotionless. 

“Today, you are going to show me your power. This is a very important test for you. You must be sure to perform your best.”

Sans swallowed hard, but nodded reluctantly. “what’s the test? what do i do?”

“You should have learned by now that you will not get answers if you ask for them.” He asked over to the panel in corner of the room, setting the clipboard on the side and pressing a few buttons, making sure all of the settings were correct. He flicked a switch and the room immediately lit up, whirring filling the small place. Sans let out a whimper of fear, eyes darting everywhere to find where the threat was coming from. 

Turns out, he didn’t have to look for long. Within five seconds, large blasters began to form, one after another in the air, circling around Sans and all pointing towards him. They were growling angrily, powering up with a continued whirring. The light in their mouths grew in size and one look at Sans face revealed how absolutely terrified he was in that moment. 

“STOP! HE’S GOING TO GET HURT!” Papyrus cried desperately, looking to the man behind them. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? HE’S JUST- HE’S GOING-“

“I made him to be strong.” The older man answered instantly, arms crossed behind his back as he peered towards the scene with a furrowed forehead. “Whether or not Sans could handle this spoke volumes about his power, and whether the project was a success or not.”

There was a cry in front of them, and both Sans and Papyrus’ eyes turned forward in worry and distress. Papyrus’ grip on his brothers shoulder began noticeably stronger. 

The blasters were shooting, and Sans...well, Sans had his eyes closed, and he was rooted in place. His bones were rattling so loudly anyone in the building would be able to hear, and tears were welling in his eyes. The blasters shots were going to hit him, he was going to die, he was going to die-

A blaster, much bigger than any of the others, appeared before him. Not wasting a single moment, it shot out a large ring of light, encountering all the others heading towards Sans and stopping them dead in their tracks. He had successfully created a force shield, keeping anything from touching him. Gaster hummed with approval and scribbled down the information. He made no attempt to turn off the blasters. 

Eventually, the ones that had generated fell tired and disappeared. Almost immediately, they were replaced with another round. When those fell tired, they were replaced, and so on and so forth. It didn’t seem to have an end ; every time a line of blasters attacking Sans fell to dust, another would take their place and resume the attack. Sans, meanwhile, was panting, exhaustion clear on his features. 

Papyrus thought back to what he had learned when he was taught about magic. It is an expression of a monsters soul, and in that, the energy needed for magic comes directly from said source of power. He realized, with a pang inside his chest, that Sans was rooted there, using all the energy he could from his soul. 

“i...i can’t keep doing this!” The child cried out over the roar of the blasters, the hands that were outstretched in front of him beginning to shake with his exhaustion. The scientist controlling the panel sighed softly, shaking his head. 

“You must continue. Unless, of course, you wish to be a failed project.”

“i...i can’t!” Sans screamed, knees buckling underneath him. The tears that were rolling down his face for a while now landed in large puddles by his feet, and before he could stop it, the large blaster that had been protecting him disappeared in an explosion of dust and light. The opposing blasters, seeing their chance, concentrated their light. All of the attacks hit an already fallen Sans at once, and his scream of pain and panic echoed loudly throughout the lab before complete silence settled in.

Papyrus was in tears, a hand covering his mouth as he struggled not to sob. Sans stared forward with an expressionless look, and the real Gaster behind them rolled his eyes at the display. 

The Gaster by the panel let out a sigh and shook his head, taking a moment to collect his notes before stepping forward. “You didn’t perform nearly as well as I would have liked you to, but I suppose that simply means I must train you even harder than I originally expected-“

He took a step forward, and his eyes widened as he stared forward. The small boy wasn’t moving, at all. He was completely still, face shoved in the ground and limbs splayed everywhere around him. 

Gaster took long strides to get to him, confusion and worry settled in his eyes. 

“With how high Subject 1’s HP was, getting hit with all of those blasters would have hurt, yes, but it would not have incapacitated him.” From behind them, Gaster supplied the information to answer the questions they were no doubt contemplating. “I realized, in this moment, that a mistake had occurred, but I was not sure what yet.”

Gaster reached Sans and turned him over sharply, letting out a soft gasp when he saw the damage on the boy. His face was cracked and so were a couple of ribs. Papyrus felt like vomiting when he saw the sight of his brother so damaged. 

Gaster placed a reluctant hand on the boys chest and closed his eyes, willing his soul forward. A faded, blue soul traveled forth, a large number signifying his HP hovering above it. 

.4/1 HP

The man stared at it for a few moments. His expression was blank, unreadable, yet it was clear the wheels were turning in his head, working hard to process the information. He was a genius. He understood what this means. 

He slammed his head on to the ground right next to Sans head and let out a yell filled with anger and annoyance. Both boys jumped as the Gaster behind them immediately began to speak. 

“I knew, at that moment, that I had managed to trash the project. Well, less me,” he sent a pointed dagger look towards Sans, full of disappointment. “Your weakness ruined this project. You see, working with you was a whole new playing field. I had no idea what would happen or why it would happen, so everything I did with you was a gamble, this just as much as anything else. I didn’t realize that, when your magic ran short, you would begin to tap into your own soul in a way no other monster does.”

“what does that mean?” Sans growled out. His fists were clenched and his voice was angry but his expression stayed the same. Unwavering. 

Gaster sighed and shook his head. “I’m sure you’re both aware that monsters tap into their own soul when using magic, as the two are connected. A glitch, a phenomenon - I am not quite sure, but an event occurred while you were fighting off the Gasters. For some reason, your magic began to feed off of your HP, and by the time you collapsed, you were completely drained. You had one HP left, and there was nothing I could do to stop that. Your weakness - the fact you had to tap into your soul in the first place - it destroyed this project.”

Sans opened his mouth to retort, but Papyrus was speaking before he even had the chance. “IT IS NOT SANS FAULT! YOU...YOU MADE HIM FIGHT FOR SO LONG, YOU PUT SO MUCH ON HIM, HE WAS JUST...A BABY! HE WAS A CHILD! AND YOU...YOU...” the skeleton was shaking as that feeling rushed through him in waves, crashing and suffocating him. “YOU...YOU HURT HIM...”

“woah, woah, pap, come ‘ere-“ Papyrus wasn’t even aware of the fact he was shaking and crying until two arms were wrapped around him, Sans tugging him down and giving him a tight hug. “it’s okay, pap, it’s alright-“

“DON’T SAY THAT, BROTHER!” Papyrus demanded, pushing away so he could look at the other. Sans regarded him with a look of shock and surprise, as his brother was never one to reject hugs. It was unlike him. “I-I KNOW IT IS IN YOUR NATURE, BUT THIS MUST BE SHOCKING FOR YOU. AND IT IS NOT ALRIGHT. NONE OF THIS IS ALRIGHT, YOU WERE JUST A KID-“

“Project S was never a kid.” Gaster interjected behind them, thoroughly annoyed by the display of affection between the brothers. “Project S was a thing, and he is now. Son, I cannot wrap my head around your...trivial feelings. They are useless, just as he was.”

“well, i wasn’t completely useless.” Sans answered honestly, papyrus looking down at his brother with curiosity. “if i were completely useless, you would have scrapped the project the second this happened, but you didn’t. i’m still here, aren’t i?”

 

Gaster smirked. “There was more information I could get from you. I understood that you were weak - much too weak for your intended purpose. In that sense, you were a failure. But that didn’t change the fact a part of me was within you, and I was reluctant to throw away a project that important so quickly. You were still a studiable specimen, so I kept you.”

“you kept messing around with me to see how i would react.” Sans answered, eyes hard. Gaster smirked. 

“I suppose so, yes. That is exactly what I did.”

The scene shifted. In front of them was Sans, laying once again on the table they had originally met him in. There was a clear shift in how he regarded the man in front of him ; before, it had been with a cautious smile, a shine of curiosity behind his innocent eyes. Now, it was well-hidden fear. Papyrus recognized it from that day Sans had fought the human in front of him. Sans was good at hiding those things - his specialty - but he was scared, and trying not to show it in attempts to not look as weak. 

“what’re we doing today? you gonna blind me? ooh, maybe we could fry my brain, that would be entertaining-“

“Quiet.” Gaster snapped simply from where he was behind his panel. “I am not in the mood for your sarcasm today. This will be painful unless you push me.”

That seemed to quiet the boy, although he didn’t seem happy about it. He kept a careful eye on Gaster as the scientist moved, flinching if he ever got too close. He was wary of he others motions, to say the least. 

Gaster seemingly rolled his eyes at this and walked over to Sans’ left side, attaching a few wires and monitors to the bones on his side, neck and sides. “You flinch when I come near you as if I’ve killed you.”

“you could have.” Sans mumbled softly, continuing to watch the man round to the other side of him and attack the wires in the same places to his right. Deciding that Gaster wasn’t doing anything to put him in immediate danger that moment, Sans allowed his eyes to fall. 

“can i ask you a question?” He mumbled slowly, almost reluctantly. The voice wasn’t at all like his usual snappy, quick and witty tone. In Papyrus’ opinion, it didn’t suit his baby brother at all. He much preferred the spirit and spunk, not the fright and timidness. 

“You have never asked me for permission before.” Was all Gaster responded with. Sans must have taken it as a yes, because he continued to push on with his talking.

“do you hate me?”

Gaster paused for a moment, movements freezing as if the question caught him off guard. He slowly leaned back, glancing at Sans with emotionless eyes. It seems as though he was fighting to keep them that way, though, taking the tenseness of his shoulders into consideration. 

“Subject S,” he stared simply, voice commanding attention and submission. “I have told you before that everything I do to you is out of necessity. I have to do what I am doing, whether you believe me or not-“

“i dont.”

“Irrelevant.” Gaster shrugged simply. “I do not cause you pain out of a disliking towards you or to bring pleasure to myself. I do it because I must.”

“what does that mean, though? why do you have to do this to me?”

“People expect me to. This is my job.”

“but i-“

“That is quite enough on that topic.” Gaster shut it down quickly. From behind the two huddled together-brothers, the real Gaster shook his head. “Telling your hidden project about his use is an overall bad idea. I was eager to shut down the conversation.”

“okay, fine. end of that talk.” Baby sans continued on in front of them, raising his hands in front of his face as he spoke. “whatever. but i still don’t get it. you say you don’t care, yet you smile when certain things that cause me pain happen.”

“I smile when you perform as you should to fill your requirements.”

“i still don’t know what that means!”

“And you don’t have to.” Gaster answered simply, accompanied by yet another shrug. “You can follow instructions without understanding why I’m asking them of you.”

Silence fell over the two for a bit as Gaster sat at his computer, typing away at the keyboard as he adjusted some requires settings. Sans sat on the table, fiddling with his fingers over his slightly pudgy body and opening his mouth repeatedly, then closing it again. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he spoke. 

“you never answered my question.” 

Gaster groaned and shook his head. “You really never do stop.”

“i’ll stop once you answer my question.”

“Unlikely.” Gaster stared back at Sans, but eventually groaned once he felt the unwavering glare from the boy. He seemed to understand the other would not easily let this up, and he positioned the chair so that he was fully facing Sans before speaking. 

“I feel absolutely nothing for you, Project S. You are a thing. I do not feel for things.” His voice was strong. The slouch in his shoulders and his hands tightly clasped together were not as much. 

Sans fell silent. Slowly, he nodded, and looked back down to continue fiddling with his fingers. Gaster, satisfied with the silence, looked back to his own computer and clicked away. The silence returned. 

Behind Sans and Papyrus, Gaster spoke up again. Sans turned, but Papyrus kept his eyes on the screen in front of him, eyes trained on his little brother. So many thoughts and emotions were rushing through his head in that moment, but two in particular trumped over all others - the idea that he would do anything to have freed his brother from this life, and the idea that he would do anything in that moment to know what his brother was thinking. 

“I felt bad.” Gaster mumbled from behind them, causing both of them to stutter in surprise (Sans especially). Both of them connected eyes with them, and he sighed underneath their glare. 

“It was not as if it was my intention to bring harm to a child, but it was necessary. I knew it was necessary. And Project S-“

“SANS.” Papyrus corrected softly. Gaster paused for a moment, stuttered, and then continued. 

“And S...Project S fell short in many ways. Many, many ways. You were a failure, in every sense of the word, and you should have never been sentient in the first place. That was my fault. I blamed you. I blame you.”

“if you know that, then why continue blaming me?” Sans asked. To both his creators and his brothers surprise, there was a hint of desperation in his voice. Papyrus much preferred the sassiness, but Gaster wasn’t sure what he wanted. 

“It is easy.” Gaster. “I believe I deserve something to be easy, after everything.”

Sans took a deep breath and shook his hand slightly, looking towards the ground as he let his eyes slide shut. He seemed to be calming himself. “Why are you telling us this? I still don’t get that.”

“When I fell, parts of me were scattered everywhere. I cannot collect all of those pieces into one place down here, so I am left to access all of them differently. For that reason, I am not able to properly control any main functions, or keep anything less desirable...under wrap, should I say.”

“you don’t want to be telling us anything,” Sans supplied in the form of a mumble. “but you have no control.”

“Exactly.” Gaster sighed and shook his head, looking at the others. “Consider this a privilege. You two would not be getting a full story if I were not in this state.”

“thanks so much.” Sans growled, sarcasm and anger dripping from his voice. “thanks so much for making me and then being so kind as to explain how you tortured me. warms my heart. and you’re still not even explaining anything. what happened? why didn’t you just die like a normal monster?” Swear words boiled at the edge of his tongue but he reminded himself that his main priority here was Papyrus, so he bit them back sharply. 

Gaster growled slightly in response. “It’s clear you can never be thankful, S4. Pay attention.” He looked back with a grunt, obviously annoyed at his creations antics and naturally rude response. Sans, bubbling over with a sense of pride, smiled to himself before looking back at the scene in front of him. He wondered how many more of these he would be forced to sit through. 

The old Gaster was now sitting in front of his computer, a look of curiosity swimming in his eyes as he scanned over the information presented. “Why, that’s strange.”

Sans’ head peaked up, looking at the other with a certain degree of worry. “what’s strange?” He asked and scooter over slightly so that he could see the screen. Gaster scoffed and pushed him back before reading out the findings. 

“You seem to have an irregularly amount of determination. It keeps bouncing in levels - one moments it’s irregularly high, and the next it’s irregularly low.” 

Sans gulped with fear. “what does that mean? is that bad?”

Gaster didn’t respond, but his eyes clearly showed that he didn’t know and was reluctant to say so. “I must perform a few more tests to isolate the issue and figure out its cause and meanings.”

Sans swallowed. “will it hurt?” He asked again, shoulders sagging a little. Gaster only rolled his eyes in response and, once again, refused to offer an actual answer. Silence fell amongst them before the scene faded out and both Sans and Papyrus looked to the actual Gaster to fill in the gaps of information. 

“I won’t show you the actual tests, as they were quite tedious.” The man shot Sans a look. “Especially when your test subject has a horrible habit of refusing almost every direction you give him.” Sans chuckled and shrugged pointedly in a mocking fashion, which Gaster immediately chose to ignore. 

“I was able to figure out that the reason for your determination hopping up and down was caused by a mutation that occurred in the process of creating your soul. This had never been done before, obviously, so I expected some strange results, but this one...” He looked off and shook his head. “I had no idea what to make of this information. And, despite my best efforts to study it, I still didn’t know until quite recently.”

Sans swallowed hard. “recently? the hell does that mean? you’re only talking to us now.”

“That’s incorrect on a multitude of levels.” Gaster smiled softly at the surprise on Sans face, getting a sort of satisfaction out of managing to confuse and shut up the shortest of the three. “While I’ve been divided, I still have a sort of power and magic. Using this magic, I am able to possess a physical form, and connect the world that I am to the world that you are in, if only for a short time.” The puzzled looks from both boys prompted him to continue. “Often times I am watching either one or both of you, but you cannot see me, because I am technically on another plane of existence. I was simply...channeling my energy to see what you were doing. I was not really there.”

Sans seemed to tense at the idea of the other being with them constantly, and Gaster smirked at that. “I’ve seen every moment of your timelines, Sans. I’ve seen everything you’ve done, I’ve seen your progression, your downfall-“

“shut it.” Sans snapped. “just stop.”

Gaster smirked, laughing. “Finally, a sensitive subject for us to talk about. You know, while I was hosting you in my lab, I didn’t think there was a topic that I could touch that would shake you. With the exception of your eye, of course-“

“my...my eye...?” Sans asked, eyes peaking up in curiosity. Instinctively, he reached out and held a hand over his left eye, looking at the man. “what about my eye..?”

“Oh,” gaster hummed and shrugged. “The memory is not worth showing you - these drain energy from me, you know - but the time I accidentally damaged your HP, I managed to also wreck your left eye. You are completely blind in that eye.”

“i’m...I’m what...?” Sans asked weakly, while Papyrus sharply sucked in his breath at the news, misery and shock filling his eyes. He immediately dropped to his knees and pulled his brother against his chest, while Sans stayed facing forward, staring at Gaster with a blank expression. 

Gaster was getting sick of seeing his sons’ acts of affection towards his creation. He wanted to hurry this up. 

“Well, yes, technically. It was a part of the Blasters attack, so I hurriedly made you an upgrade for your other eye in attempts to correctify the situation. I was able to create a device that attaches to your eye and expands the amount of space it can see. So even though one of your eyes does not work, your functioning one is sufficient enough to work as two separate eyes. You’ve never noticed because you’ve never had reason to.”

“is that why i can’t glow in my left eye...” Sans asked, shoulders sagging slightly against Papyrus. The other brother was feeling guilt within his soul, although he know Sans would never accept it - he had chastised Sans for so long for never glowing his left eye, assuming it was caused by the other being too lazy or simply not wanting to. Neither he nor Sans had any idea he was literally physically unable to. He didn’t blame himself - he couldn’t have known if even Sans himself didn’t - but the new perspective on the situation left a pang in his heart just the same. 

Before Gaster could confirm Sans suspicions, the smaller of the two was already talking over him. “okay, fine, whatever. broken eye, great, jolly. there’s still so much you’re not explaining, man. what even happened to you? why is your soul split..? and you mentioned determination earlier, but that was discovered by doctor alphys. not everything you’re saying it checking out.” Sans concluded warily, and Gaster took note of the way he took a step closer to Papyrus, arms ready by his side. 

Gaster simply laughed at the display. “You will learn in due time what happened to me. Do not become impatient, remember that this is, in a way, to help you. As for the second statement, Alphys wasn’t the first to discover determination. I found it long before her, but once I was erased, all records mentioning it disappeared from existence. All of my work on something so important was gone - it was upsetting, really. But almost immediately, Doctor Alphys was hired, and she caught the same trail that I had and discovered it on her own. Her research was considerably more thoroughly than my own, however, as she had a much longer time to study the effects.”

Sans nodded slowly. He opened his mouth, probably to ask more questions, but before he could, the world around them began to form again, and another memory was forming. 

“These take energy.” Gaster spoke behind them. “I would like to speak up this process a bit and get to the important things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> by the way - as a quick side note - sorry for the fact that some of these chapters end in a slightly awkward way! the story was originally written in chunks much larger than this, so in order to break them down into readable chapters, I had to break in some awkward places. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed! Another long chapter!
> 
> Next one should be up soon!


	7. Chapter 7

The scene was different this time. They were not in the same dusty, cramped experiment room - this time, they were inside of Sans living quarters, a small cell with a single blanket, pillow, and a hanging shelf for a bed. Sans was positioned in the middle of the room, absentmindedly fiddling with the rubix cube between his fingers. He solved it rather quickly, then set it aside, decidedly bored and staring at the wall instead. His head only perked up when the door to the far left slid open, and he scrambled to his feet to see what was going on. He paused, however, when the sight in front of him was entirely unfamiliar. 

Gaster stood in the door, his usual lab coat on and his glasses positioned sloppily on his face. He looked conservancy more tired than normal, but the biggest difference by far was the squirming bundle in his arms. He seemed relatively annoyed by it, although he did not immediately dump it or place it down. He kept it close to his chest in a protective manner, waving his hand for Sans to come closer.

The smaller skeleton crept closer, curiosity shining in his dim eyes. He peaked over, and gasped at what he saw. The real Papyrus and Sans did the same as the contents of the bundle came into view when Gaster tipped it down to show the child experiment. 

Wrapped up in several blankets and with a large pacifier in his mouth was the undeniable face of Papyrus. He couldn’t have been more than a few days old, considering how tiny he was. His eyes were wide open and excited, peering everywhere and giggling once he met eyes with Sans. 

The projects eyes exploded with a light and, without even knowing it, his eye began to glow a bright purple.

“what...is it...?” He asked Gaster slowly, looking up at the other for answers and guidance. 

“This is my son.” Gaster answered simply, holding out the bundle towards Sans. “He will be under your care all day now. I expect you to do well with him.”

Sans gasped as he was handed the baby, fear immediately gripping his eyes as he shakily took the baby bones into his own arms. He tried to replicate the way Gaster had been cradling the baby, holding him close to his chest and peering down into his bright eyes. Papyrus looked back, face full of wonder and shock for a moment, before erupting into giggles. 

San couldn’t help but match the others smile. He grownup Sans chuckled softly at the sight, shaking his head as nostalgia filled him. “I remember that day.” He murmured with a shake of his head. “You were the only other monster I had ever met, Pap, and I just wanted to see that smile again.” 

Papyrus cooed softly while he looked at the screen. “I WAS SO CUTE!” He cried happily, holding Sans’ hand tightly. “AND LOOK AT YOU SANS! YOU WERE SUCH A NATURAL!”

“how...do i take care of him?” Sans asked Gaster slowly, peering up from where his eyes had been glued to the baby. 

Gaster hummed, giving his typical response. “Figure it out. He is a monster, so figure that you should take care of him just as I take care of you. Food, sleep, essentials. Remember, S4, this is my son. If you mess up once, he will be removed from your care and i will ensure that you will never see another living creature besides me again, do you understand?”

Sans shrunk back slightly from the man’s glare and nodded weakly, still hugging Papyrus close. The baby whines at the tension in the room and buried against Sans to escape from it. 

“what does...son mean?” Sans asked, slowly. He didn’t want to say anything that would cause Gaster to become angry or take away the baby in his arms, but the curiosity that called to him was strong. 

Gaster, however, simply rolled his eyes at the question. “A son is someone you create. They are related to you by bone. I am Papyrus’ father. We are family.”

Sans eyes shone in wonder as he cradled the precious bundle of life close to his chest. “family?” He asked, peering down at the baby who stared up at him with wide, innocent eyes. “are we...family?”

“No.” Gaster answered immediately, obviously wanting to kill the idea before it implanted itself in Sans’ mind. “Me and you are not family. I am the creator and you are the creation. I suppose, in a way, one could say you and Papyrus will be adopted brothers from now on-“

“brothers?” Sans gasped. The Papyrus watching the scene couldn’t get over how cute his brother looked with a look of wonder in his eyes. He looked like a pure, happy child ; what Papyrus would’ve given anything to let him be. 

The look on Gasters face showed that he knew he had made a mistake. “Well, I didn’t really mean that-“

“papyrus...brother...” a smile slowly spread across the older childs’ face and Sans was suddenly pressing the fussy baby close, the stars shining in his eyes. “i have...a brother? a fam...family...?”

Gaster groaned as he looked at the children, shaking his head when he noted the excitement. “Do not allow yourself to get obsessed with a word. I am leaving for now. I will be back to retrieve Papyrus tonight.”

The scene didn’t melt away, but simply shifted, presumably to a later time the same day, considering how little the interior of the cell had changed. Sans was sitting in the center of the cold floor, the baby in his lap. He was gazing down at his newfound brother, eyes still bright with wonder as he watched and studied the others movements. Papyrus gurgled happily, kicking his feet with excitement as he bubbled up at the boy above him. 

“don’t worry.” Sans murmured softly, slowly reaching his hand out. Papyrus immediately latched on, tiny baby fingers wrapping around Sans’ larger ones. His gurgles of happiness only increased in volume as he fiddled with the phalanges. “it’s dark here, but i’ll...I’ll protect you. in the human books, the ones that he gave me, it said that...your family is people you love, who you protect, so i’ll...I’ll protect you from the darkness down here. i promise.” 

Papyrus gurgled. Sans smiled as if that’s the only response he would ever need, and then immediately resumed cuddling the other close to keep him warm and happy. 

“I realized a fatal error in my making of you, S4.” Gasters deep voice from behind the two brothers ended their watching of the scene, Papyrus cooing at Sans’ protective behavior, and Sans smiling softly at the wriggly bundle of joy that had been his baby brother. Sans scoffed weakly, hands shoved in his pockets and eyes meeting Gaster’s with a hard stare. 

“among the many others, i’m presuming.” He hummed. Papyrus felt in a tug in his soul at the words. His brother...his poor brother. 

“I made you alone.” Gaster placed his hand on the chin, looking off as if lost in thought. “My original plan was to make two of you, both so that you would depend on each other and so that I could have a back-up system, so to speak. Once I removed the necessary material to make one-“ he lifted up his hand to show the circle, a blank area representing what Sans was made up of. “I realized that it’s a considerably more draining process than I had originally anticipated, and that I would not survive making two, so I simply made you. This posed more problems than I expected. As monsters, we require certain needs to be met, and one of the biggest of those is social. We must socialize or we will give in to a certain level of craziness. The only person you ever interacted with was me-“

“pleasant interactions, too.” Sans interrupted bitterly. Gaster gave him a glare, and pointedly chose to ignore him. 

“And, due to the nature of our relationship, I knew that could not sustain you emotionally. Sooner or later, you would have gone crash locked in that cell alone for hours on end. Papyrus was a mistake, of sorts, but he was my son. As soon as I saw him, however, I had an idea. I gave him to you, not only to provide you with that extra relationship, but as leverage.”

“LEVERAGE...?” Papyrus asked slowly, confusion in his eyes. 

“Yes, leverage. You see, Sans’ hope down there wasn’t...high, to say the least. And, if his hope dropped to zero, he would almost definitely fall - and I wasn’t willing to lose the project that easily. I needed to find something to give him hope - to be his ‘light in the darkness’, so to speak.” He smirked when he laid eyes on Papyrus. “you were a bundle of joy from the moment you came to us. You were the perfect fit, and I was right. Sans loved you right away. It was fascinating, really. He had never experienced love, yet he showed it so strongly and brightly for you. He followed instinct, instead of example.”

“you’re partially correct.” Sans spoke up, clenching his fists in his pocket. He was still s little annoyed from the jab at Papyrus being s mistake. “me and you both know i would’ve stuck my neck out for pap no matter what, but...those human books you had me read when i learning. they spoke of love. that’s where i learned it.”

Gaster nodded quickly, seeming to analyze the information in the same way he would if he had the clipboard in his hands to write it down. “Interesting...” He hummed. 

Sans felt his stomach churn at the way that Gaster still gazed upon him as if he were an experiment, ready to be studied and picked apart limb by limb to see what’s inside. He backed up closer to Papyrus. Whether it was to protect his brother, or in desperate hopes to protect himself, he wasn’t sure. 

“Well, no matter. My point is, it worked. You loved him, S4. Your hope soared, because then you had something to work for - you had a goal. Something to reach for, something to want. Of course, Papyrus still had his...alternative uses.”

“what does that mea-“ the world around them misted away again, replaced rather quickly by a new scene. 

It was Sans, standing in the middle of the experimentation room with Papyrus clutched closer to his chest. The baby looked bigger than before, but not by much ; time had passed, but not a large amount. Sans looked...not wary, but a little nervous. A little apprehensive. 

“what is this?” He asked Gaster, although his eyes showed he didn’t expect an answer. “you’ve never asked for me to bring pap before.”

Gaster rolled his eyes, standing in front of them. He looked...tired. A little drained. “That’s a rather disgusting nickname for my son.” He said shortly, before a small smile spread across his face. “Although I doubt I’ll be a very good father after today.”

“what...does that..?” Sans seemed worried at those words, clutching the bundle of bones a little closer. Papyrus was letting out soft giggles, blissfully unaware as he lay in his brothers arms. He had, of course, immediately taken a liking to Sans, gripping his fingers whenever he could and flashing him happy, carefree and toothy smiles. 

“S4, place the child on the floor and step back.” 

Immediately, Sans was shaking his head.c holding Papyrus close to his neck and laughing weakly. “you’ve gotta be kiddin me, no way in hell. why would i ever-“

A small ping echoed through the room as Sans chest glowed a bright blue, soul illuminating the small area. The child grit his teeth as he was forced to walk to the center of the room, place down the confused baby, and talk away. The blue magic was immediately released and he gasped, clutching a hand tightly over his soul and giving the scientist the dirtiest look he could. 

“Cooperate.” Gaster growled out at him, eyes leaving no room for argument. 

“don’t really have a choice, do i?” Somehow, Sans found the space. Gaster let his shoulders sag slightly in annoyance before straightening himself again, standing over his gurgling boy and staring dead into Sans eyes. 

“S4,” he addressed shortly, eyes even colder than normal (if that was possible.) “You have been acting out recently. You are even more intolerable than usual, and you refuse to follow instructions. I see you eyeing ways to escape.” The acknowledgment to Sans’ attempts seemed to have the boy go rigid, Gaster smirking at the sight. “These behaviors are not, and never will be, encouraged. I believe a punishment is in order.”

Sans was beginning to piece together what was going on, based on the flash of panic in his eyes, and he inhaled sharply. “please, i’ll stop, i’ll do extra tests, i-i’ll do anything, just please, don’t hurt him, please-“ he shot forward to get to the baby in the center, but let out a sharp whimper of pain as the scientist tightened his grip around his soul to keep him rooted in place. 

“Perhaps it’s time I gave you some incentive to behave.” He walked over to the child, removing the child’s arm without much hassle at all. Papyrus seemed more curious than anything else. He walked right in front of Sans, holding the bone at face level and being sure to keep his hands rooted behind his back with magic so he couldn’t lash out or grab the object. 

With a sick smile, he gripped both ends of his own baby boy’s limb, and snapped. 

Cries filled the room, as well as a desperate scream from Sans. Papyrus was wailing and flailing on the ground, heart-breaking and piercing screams echoing through the small area. Sans had tears running down his cheeks as he begged, begged and begged ; his bro was hurt, he needed help, he needed to get to him, Papyrus was hurt and it was all Sans’ fault-

Gaster dropped the limb by Sans’ feet and released the hold on his soul. Sans stumbled over himself leaning down to scoop up the precious bone and rush over to the baby with tears streaming down his face, shakily reattaching his limb. Sans had never been very good at healing, probably because he had been taught it after his HP incident, but, as he was staring down at the baby in his arms, he channeled everything within him into it. His face expressed passion and desperation, pushing the baby so he was buried against his chest and as far away from any danger as he funneled more and more healing energy into the other. 

Behind them, Gaster scribbled notes. 

“You performed well.” He said eventually, eying the two. The break in his sons arm was almost completely healed and no longer held even a scar, but it was obvious that Sans’ wasn’t letting go of the baby anytime soon, considering how close he was holding it. 

“you’re so sick.” Sans couldn’t help but growl, rubbing the baby’s head with his hand and massaging the side in hopes to keep him calm and peaceful. As calm and peaceful as possible, anyways.

“Personal opinion.” Gaster hummed and shrugged, looking Sans dead in the eyes for a moment and pausing his writing halfway. 

“This may have been a test to experience your healing abilities, but do not think these are hollow warnings. I will hurt him if you act out, S4. Stay in line, or injure him. Do I make myself clear?”

Sans didn’t give a response, but the way he flinched when Gaster took a step closer was enough of one. 

“i still don’t understand how you could stomach that.” The gazing Sans spat out, anger dripping like sickeningly sweet honey from his words. “he is...was, i don’t know anymore - your own son. you hurt your own son.”

“I’ve made sacrifices.” Gaster responded, maintaining a cool and composed outer exterior. “I had killed people before I created you, S4, but I understood once I made you that I would have to let go of the emotions that would hold me back. You, as a project, had to be a success - and in order to assure that, I couldn’t let my own pity towards a child get in the way of that.”

“i think science did you more harm than it did good. but, you know, it obviously brought you to a pretty good place, so worth the bad stuff, huh?” Sans hummed with the same snarky grin, arms crossed across his chest. This seemed to strike a chord with Gaster, as his eyes suddenly shot up and narrowed when they connected with the shortest skeleton. He raised his hand, blue bubbling up in his palm, and before either of the brothers could stop him, Sans soul was blue and being squeezed as tightly as the monster could muster without breaking it. His hand shook as he watched the shorter let out a sharp cry of pain, gripping over his chest and trembling as waves of pain ran through him. Papyrus let out a cry of alarm, immediately crouching by his brother and pulling him close in attempts to protect him from the attacker. Gaster simply giggled at the sight, hand now shaking hard enough the sounds of rattling bones could be heard through the room. 

The taller of the two brothers, however, wasn’t just holding Sans close in a defensive nature or attempts to shield him. His own eye was burning a bright orange as he looked down at his brother, concentrating as hard as the weight of panic pushing down on his ribcage would allow him to. 

“COME HERE, BROTHER...” he cooed, voice uncharasmatically soft and not even flinching when a short gasp of surprise forced its way past Gaster’s lips. Slowly, somehow, Papyrus was using his own magic to release Gasters’ hold on Sans, taking his brothers soul into his own magic instead and cradling it as opposed to squeezing it. “THERE YOU GO...”

Sans let out a sharp breath almost immediately collapsed against Papyrus, sweat beading on his forehead. “i get it...” he huffed out, hand finding the tail end of Papyrus’ scarf and holding on tightly. “i understand, i think. these are some run-up tests, huh? you wanna see how your little creation has matured and changed? we can practically see you writing notes in your head.”

Gasters laugh was confirmation enough and Sans responded with a similar noise, but much deeper - much shakier. It sounded as if a simple gust of wind would be able to shatter it into pieces. 

“glad to know that, after all these years, we’re still just toys for you.”

“Oh, please.” Gaster rolled his eyes, smile still taunting and cruel. Papyrus straightened slightly, keeping my his arms secured around Sans. “Toys are fun to play with. I do what I do for the scientific information, that’s all.”

Sans hummed. He didn’t believe the other, but after realizing Gaster still had his magic, he wasn’t willing to keep being smart with his mouth. It was very possible for the man to do the same to his brother, and a deep desire to keep this situation and harmless to Papyrus as possible resides within his soul. 

“just show us what happened.” He murmured, sighing from slight exhaustion and leaning his head against Papyrus’ chest. He was too lazy for all of this. Or, maybe, it’s that he was too scared for all of this, and that was his excuse for being lazy. He wasn’t quite sure anymore, he just knew he wanted to get out. 

They were in the cell. Papyrus was laying on the bed, a small baby blue one-piece hugging him comfortably. He was sitting up and leaning against the counter, and he looked considerably older - a year now, perhaps. He seemed still happy as ever, a wide smile on his face as he fiddled around with the cube placed in his hands. He obviously had zero idea how the thing worked or even what he was doing, really, but the joy in his eyes was evidence enough that moving the rows was satisfaction enough. 

Sans, on the other hand, was at the other side of the cell, standing on his tippy toes and glancing out the breaks in the cells magical barrier. He seemed to be deep in thought, glancing back at Papyrus every once and a while to make sure the other was occupied and happy. When his eyes landed on the happy baby, a smile graced his face, before coming hard and set once again when he looked back. 

Eventually, after a while of just staring, he stepped back. “today’s the day.” He murmured softly with unbelieving eyes. He took a few steps towards Papyrus, staring down at the baby with a mixture of extreme affection and guilt. Shakily, he reached down, hoisting the baby into his arms and holding him close. He grabbed the blanket as well, wanting to think forward a little as he wrapped it around the child and tucked it close. As a last thought, he snatched the rubix cube, shoving it into his pocket and turning towards the front of the cell. 

A deep inhale entered him and a deep exhale left moments later. He relaxed his shoulders, glancing down at the baby and flashing him a reassuring smile. 

“hey papy, can you be quiet for me? just until i tell you to, alrighty bro?”

Papyrus gurgled. Sans must’ve taken that as a yes, because he straightened back up and walked up to the cell walls. Slowly, he took a few steps back, raising his hand and allowing the bright blue glow to enter and radiate within his iris. 

Outside the cell, a large blaster formed, shaking slightly before letting out a loud beam of angry, shaking light. The technology of the touchpad for the cell shattered into pieces, causing for the magic barriers in front of the cell to disintegrate moments later. 

Sans took off in a sprint. 

He was practically falling over himself with how desperately his feet were hitting the pavement, one after another, begging to bring him anywhere else. His grip on Papyrus was tight, trying his hardest not to jostle the baby with the rapid and quick movements. 

He dashed down the hall in the opposite way than the man ever took him, away from the pain, fear and torture he had experienced since creation. He skidded to a halt in front of the elevator, panicking for a moment before a bright light of realization invaded his eyes before reaching out and jabbing the button. There was a loud shift, the grinding of old gears, and then the doors slowly slid open. 

Sans didn’t hesitate, rushing into the small area and jabbing a random button inside. The doors ground close once again, just as loud the second time, and Sans slid against one of the back walls as the transportation moved upwards. He looked overwhelmed - he didn’t know where he was, he was panicking, he had no idea where this place would empty out to or if this was all some sort of test put in place by the man, or something to prevent him from escaping ; he had no idea what was going on. 

He held Papyrus a little closer and rooted his feet, rolling his shoulders with a peaceful look washing over his face. Panicking would jeopardize what he was trying to do. 

The light pinged, and the doors slid open once more. In front of them was a long walk, railings on either side keeping monsters from plummeting into the lava-like substance that bubbled beneath the platforms. The path lead to the left and right, both emptying into different sections of the building. Sans took off into a sprint towards the left, the footsteps echoing in the dauntingly large space. 

“Enough of that.” Gaster grumbled, shaking his head as the scene shifted. “It’s time we focus on me. You see, at the time, while I was working on your experiment undercover, I was also creating a machine above ground in my public office. Consider it a back-up plan, of sorts. If S4 had worked, he would’ve been much easier, and much more interesting, but since he did, I began to create a machine that had a different way of going about destroying the barrier. He got rid of the idea of souls all together and used pure determination instead. The machine, however, was finicky, and one day, it began to malfunction completely. That’s why I hadn’t come down to visit you that day.”

To say that Gaster was panicking would be an understatement. Various other monsters the boys didn’t recognize rushed around him, all looking equally as freaked out as they handed him tools when he asked for them. He was mumbling to himself, desperate hitting buttons, flipping switches and changing numbers anywhere and everywhere he could. 

“It won’t stabilize!” He screamed, slamming his hands down onto the panels angrily. “All of you! Get out of here! I have to shut down the machine entirely but it is risky. Evacuate the building! Get everyone out!”

Some looked as if they wanted to protest, but the others nodded curtly and ran out of the room as fast as their legs could carry them. 

Gaster, now looking even a hair more relaxed at the fact that the monsters were out of his hair, turned back to his creation and continued with what he was doing. He didn’t notice the small button flashing red in the corner before it was too late. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted it. Immediately, his head swiveled around, a loud and aggressive swear leaving his mouth as he caught sign of an all-Too familiar hospital gown moving through the air, the sound of shuffling bones loud and clear as well. 

He allowed himself to get distracted, so he didn’t see the red light until it was getting brighter and brighter, and then a little brighter still. 

The machine exploded. It immediately formed a dark, black hole and began to consume everything in the room. Notebooks, coffee cups and writing materials shot towards it, stolen forever. 

Gaster gripped onto the control panel, but he was losing it. He was losing his hold. 

“It was so much pain.” Gaster snarled behind them, taking steps towards them for the first time since they had appeared there. “It felt like I was being ripped apart, slowly, in the most torturous way possible. I would’ve been able to move if I hadn’t been distracted. I would’ve been okay. I would’ve gotten out.”

Sans shrank back slightly when the man kept walking closer. The memory shifted, catching both of the brothers off guard as they struggled to both pay attention to the story being laid out in front of them and keep their eyes on the advancing threats. 

Sans pushed open the door to the laboratory, stumbling out and directly into the heat of HotLand. For a moment, it obviously threw him off, shock slamming into his features before he decidedly ignored it and continued to run forward. He knew he wasn’t safe ; not that he thought he would ever truly be. 

The explosion was sudden, as most explosions usually are. It produced a burst of yellow, red and orange light, ashes fluttering their way down from sky. 

Sans stumbled. He landed face first. Papyrus let out a wail from next to him, where Sans had quickly moved his arm to make sure he didn’t crush the baby. 

“i woke up there.” Sans murmured, staring at the scene and twitching his attention back to Gaster when the other took another sketchy step forward. “it’s my first full memory.” 

Gaster scoffed. “I’m sick of these memories. Let’s get to the fun stuff, okay? I’ve been waiting so long to do this, boys. Too long.”

He took a step forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only ever really seem to update this at crazy hours...who knows
> 
> Another chapter! We’re really coming up on the end? One or two more, maybe?
> 
> I wanna just quickly thank both handplates and time scar again for being such massive inspirations for this story lmao
> 
> Re-reading this, I realize it definitely needs some tweaks and adjustments (I still haven’t fixed what a few of you lovelies pointed out with the occasional “Sans bit his lip” slipping through the cracks without me realizing, sorry!) but i figure I’ll either do that when the story is finished or I’ll forget, haha. 
> 
> There are some small additions I’d definitely love to add if I ever get the chance, so watch out for those? Maybe? Idk I always say I’ll do things n then don’t so uhhh
> 
> Hope you enjoyed & thank u for reading! Next chapter should be up tomorrow or the day after


	8. Chapter 8

Both brothers took cautionary steps back as the evil in front of them advanced, the anger bubbling and boiling behind Gaster’s eyes. For the most part, he was trained on Sans, but occasionally his irises would flick over to Papyrus, softening only the slightest bit. 

“WE DID WHAT YOU WANTED.” Papyrus tried, arms around Sans holding him a little closer. He didn’t like the look his brother was receiving. “CAN WE...GO HOME NOW?”

“Papyrus...” Gaster said slowly, sending an unstable grin in their direction. “I must say that I am very happy that you have not lost your innocence. I will be letting you go.”

“WHAT ABOUT MY BROTHER?” Papyrus asked, fear beginning to creep up towards his soul. He didn’t have time for answer, however, before the ground began to shake underneath him. 

The area around them was shifting again, but it was different this time. It wasn’t a memory going to be played - the entire world around them was changing. They, themselves, were moving. Sans stumbled forward slowly, hold on Papyrus’ arm turning tighter and Papyrus’ doing the same in return. Gaster seemed unaffected, despite the fact his body shaking slightly in place told them that he was moving too. 

The vibration of the world around them stopped, and both brothers placed a hand on their heads in attempts to calm their aching heads and restore their equilibrium. Gaster, although blinking a few times, seemed relatively unaffected. 

The room was...dark. It was silent. The air felt different, and not a single sound could be heard. The brothers stared in front of them, out into the nothing, before slowly turning their heads around and gazing behind them instead. 

There stood two buttons, massive, towering over them by twenty or so feet. One read, in large letters “CONTINUE”. The other, much more chillingly, had “RESET” written in the same font.

Immediately, Sans recognized what this was. He found himself staring at the button as thoughts, memories flashed through his head at an overwhelming state, and all he could feel was pure, raw hatred. Hatred towards that stupid, fucking button, and everything it had managed to do to him. 

“I’M AFRAID I...STILL DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND IT.” Papyrus said slowly. He had pieced together the reset button, but when he saw the fore lone, depressed look making its way across his brothers face, he knew Sans hadn’t pieced together the story either. 

Gaster seemed all too happy to explain. That, in its own way, was equally as creepy. 

“The machine that I fell into - well, the machine that took me - it was utilizing the powers of human determination, while not actually being made of said material. It was connected directly to a “world” - an entity, perhaps - that I have dubbed the Void. Ever since that machine pulled me in, I have been living in the Void. The Void is a dark and powerful thing, boys. It has more power than monsters and humans could ever truly understand. It has the energy to rip apart a soul or stitch it together in half a second. When I fell in, my soul was quite literally split into thousands and thousands of tiny fragments and spread across the Void. The Void...even I don’t understand it fully, but the fact I can connect to your world at times despite my state suggests that it’s a place in between worlds. Timelines, to be more specific.” 

Gaster shifted so he was addressing the smaller of the two skeletons. “Whenever you teleported, you crossed through the Void for half a moment. I always felt the ripple you caused. You weren’t skipping across time, necessarily, but more bending the concept of time in the fact that you erased the time necessary it would’ve taken to travel to that place. You’re magic...that is one thing I got correct in the experiment, Sans. Although you didn’t live up to anywhere near my expectations, you’re magic is amazingly powerful when you are bothered to utilize it.”

Sans snorted out a soft laugh and shrugged, hands still buried within his pants. “maybe you can call this on my laziness, or maybe it’s because of trauma, i dunno, but i was always kinda reluctant to use my magic until the resets started. dunno. always gave me a bad feeling.”

Gaster smirked, a prideful look crossing his face. “I left marks on the both of you in a way neither noticed. Sans hated using his magic, and Papyrus, you would flinch ever so slightly when someone touched your arm.”

Self-consciously, Papyrus reached up and cradled the said limb in his arm. Gasters grin only widened at that. 

“Sans, you’ve even met me, in very precious circumstances.” He grinned, and Sans’ forehead shot up in surprise at the information. 

“I have?”

“Since my strength comes from the Void, and the Voids strength comes from time, resets, understandably so, gave it a great amount of strength. With those surges of power, sometimes - on rare occasions - I was strong enough to bring my soul fragments together for long enough and in a strong enough fashion to even bring myself to the separate timeline, as opposed to simply fading in the background of it. I spoke to you, Sans. You found me, and you remembered everything when you saw my face. We spoke a little - I told you I was always watching - as then my power faded, along with I. The second I was out of your view, you forgot. The memories faded.”

Sans eyes seemed to light up with realization and he nodded rapidly, memories flooding back to him in heaps. “i remember that. it was always right after resets in that weird door.”

Gaster hummed. “It only happened three, maybe four times. The amount of power needed for me to transport my entire being into another universe was astronomical.”

“IF THE VOID GETS ITS POWER FROM THE RESETS..” Papyrus piped up behind them, staring up at the reset button with an unreadable expression scribbled across his face. “AND CHARA HAS BEEN LOSING THE ABILITY TO RESET RECENTLY...DOESN’T THAT MEAN THE VOID IS GETTING WEAKER?”

“Very good, my boy.” Gaster cooed, patronizing the other. Sans felt his fists clench, but he remember what happened earlier and decided it was probably in both his and Papyrus’ best interest if he stayed quiet and refrained from smart and snappish remarks. “I suppose I should explain how this whole thing works, how it started.” He smiled towards Sans. “I can’t have you going insane with questions, can I?”

Sans didn’t respond. He buried his hands in his pockets to broke his hard gaze with the other, looking to the left. Gaster grinned. 

“Chara was a child that fell into the underground, and was adopted by the Queen, Toriel, and her husband, King Asgore. They themselves already had a small boy, named Asriel. For a long time, they were happy. Until...Chara fell sick. I was alive during this time. I remember all of this. The child perished soon after, and, in a horribly tragic sequence of events, Asriel followed in their footsteps and died not too long after. Around this time is when I met my fate, as well, and you two were able to escape from the lab.” His voice grew noticeably darker, noticeably angrier, and the taller of the two skeleton brothers took a cautionary step backwards, pulling his brother along with him. 

“Some time passed. The King and Queen split up, and while Asgore took over the Underground entirely, Queen Toriel went to the Ruins and stayed there. You know what happened for the both of you - you struggled along in the Capital until Asgore found you, gave you both a home and Sans a job at the Lab, and things seemed fine. Until...Doctor Alphys and Doctor Asgore began their own, respective, determination experiments.”

“Doctor Asgore must’ve forgotten they had spread the dust of his son across the yellow flowers he had loved so much, because those flowers were taken, and one was injected with determination. As you can imagine, this held some issues. This act created Flowey - the tiny, talking flower that is Asriel, but has lost all of the love that once made up the young prince’s heart.”

“I KNOW HIM!” Papyrus cried, frowning deeply at his fathers explanation. “POOR ASRIEL...LIVING WITHOUT LOVE MUST BE SO PAINFUL!”

“It is numb.” Gaster answered simply. “He is a living being without a soul, only existing off of Determination. Because of that, he inherited the power of the Resets. He was the only monster who possessed this power - he was the only one with enough raw power to be able to access the button. He controlled our fate...for a while, at least. Until the young child fell down.”

“frisk.” Sans mumbled. Papyrus’ head turned and Gaster smiled softly and nodded. 

“Yes, Frisk. The human child had more Determination than Flowey, and took over the power of Resets. Although Flowey could still perform them, the power was much, much more resting in Frisks’ hands - they were the main influencer. They went through the underground, dying occasionally, but then reloading at their last Save point. Those are called Continue’s, or Load’s.” He waved his hand towards the secondary button, the one painted with a large and neat “CONTINUE”. “They are smaller than true Resets.”

“so what happened?” Sans asked slowly, staring at Gaster. “what caused the brat kid to take over?”

“Frisk lived through the saving of the monsters once, and then got to the surface. They lived peacefully there for a while, but slowly became bored. They utilized their power once, and went back in time. Here, Sans, is where I learned what that special trait that you have comes into play.”

Sans’ head perked up. He seemed confused. 

“You are still made of a part of me, Sans, and in that, we are connected. I am a Scientist, and sometimes, Science requires using yourself as a test subject. I managed to give myself a Trait of memory - and, when falling into the Void, it served me great purpose. I would have forgotten everything if I didn’t possess this, and be good as dead down there with no recollection of who I am, or where I came from - but this Trait keeps me from forgetting that. Since you have it, it also affects you. That trait is why you are the only one who remembers Resets. You are the only one who has a dominant knowledge of them. The others - Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys and everything - they remember, but they don’t realize. Small things, such as feeling as if they’d seen the child before - that’s all them remembering without realizing it. They have the memories. You have the ability to access them.”

Slowly, Sans nodded. Things began to fall into place, the confusion that he had carried on his back for...he had honestly lost track of how long it had been now, was slowly melting away. “alright, i guess that makes sense, but i still don’t understand the brat.”

“Chara is an interesting case.” Gaster hummed. “Chara had...quite a bit of resentment within them. From day one, they were not as happy nor as carefree as Frisk, or Asriel when he was alive. The reason they fell down the hole in the first place was due to running away from abusive parents, so they had a natural distrust towards anyone who claimed to love them. They also, however, had the biggest Determination of anyone. Bigger than Frisks’ or Flowey’s combined. They had enough to keep them alive, but they knew that if they could not take over completely, they would never be able to gain complete, one hundred-percent control of the Reset button. So...they took over. They possessed Frisks’ body and gained complete control over the power from then, and then killed Flowey at the end so that they had absolutely no competition left.”

“so why didn’t it just stop there..?” Sans asked slowly, shaking his head. He hated this. 

“Well, just like Frisk, the child got bored. They had what they wanted, but being on the surface with the monsters was rather...well, boring. They had the power of the Reset, and they wanted to know what else to do with it. What limits they could stretch it to. So they Reset, and they killed Toriel. They killed every monster that got in their way, Froggit’s, Papyrus, Undyne, anyone. Remember that Chara did not have as much love than Frisk or Asriel. They had a soul - but a dark one.”

He turned his attention to Sans, and he smiled. “When Chara learned that you can remember Resets, Sans, they laughed.”

Papyrus stuttered. Sans growled. Gaster continued to talk. 

“So that’s what’s been happening for the past, oh...three years, perhaps? Four? I’m horrible at keeping track of time in the Void, and my guess is that Sans is not all that much better.” 

Sans shrugged softly, completely and utterly disinteresting in answering the question. “so can you remind me again, why the hell we’re here?”

“Ah, yes.” Gaster’s grin faltered slightly and he glanced to the left, in the direction of the buttons. “Well, to put it simply, I am dying.”

“W...WHAT?” Papyrus asked, eyes wide as he stared at the man in front of him. He didn’t appear to be dusting. 

“As I said earlier, my energy-“ he placed his hand atop of his chest, the hole positioned right where his soul would be “-it comes from the Void. The Void is what both rips me apart and stitches me back together again. And the Void gets its power from Resets, but Chara has been getting weaker and weaker as of late. A child is still a child, and possessing a body is difficult work. Recently, Frisk was able to successfully push Chara out of their mind - banish them from their body forever. Without a body, and despite Chara’s determination, they are quite weak. They have been unable to reset, and moved to simply jumping themselves back in time during the fight with you, Sans, instead of doing a whole new Load. This is why they have been appearing in your dreams, Sans. They are looking for a new body to possess - a strong one. Your attack is 99999. They would do anything to control someone as strong as you, and your hope is so incredibly low, they honestly thought it would be pretty easy.”

The scientist laughed. “Oh, how wrong they were. Your hope may be pathetic but it is still there in a strong, radiating way - your brother. You have given up on yourself, but you will never give up on saving Papyrus. That’s the only thing keeping you from allowing Chara in, and it gets them mad. The scar across your chest-“ subconsciously, Sans reached up and grasped the area of his shirt right above the wound - “it is the result of you constantly fighting off the child’s attempts. They know that if they were not able to take you over soon, they will disappear, and with it, the Resets, the Void, and me.” 

Sans growled softly, shaking his head. “i still don’t understand why you brought us here. what’s the point? it’s not like you want to help us?”

“No, that’s not quite it. I have an...idea.” Gaster took a step forward, and Papyrus squeaked, backing up once more. “If I can grip onto your soul, Sans, I may be able to drag myself out of the void. I may be able to switch our places so you are there, and I am here. Papyrus will not remember you, all the memories with you will be replaced with memories of me, and we can finally be a happy, real family, without my mistake of a project hanging over our heads.” He was growling, voice growing angrier and angrier as he spoke and eyes beginning to illuminate a bright light. The area around them was lighting up. 

“y-you’re crazy.” Sans stuttered out, Papyrus’ arms pulling him tightly against his younger brothers chest. “that would never work. that’s not how...that’s insane-“

“Maybe.” Gaster laughed, held tilting to the side and eyes opening lazily. “Maybe it is. But even if it doesn’t work-“ he reached out quickly, lunging towards Sans’ soul - “at least I’ll drag you down with me!”

Sans let out a cry of panic and shot his hand up, his own eye exploding into a fiery blue. Bones rose from the nonexistent ground above them, but Gaster jumped back moments before they impaled him. He looked forward for a moment, before laughing. 

“Even if I cant get out,” he murmured, catching his balance before advancing again. “I’d love the opportunity to keep studying my subject.”

“S-STOP IT!” Papyrus cried, quickly leaning down to scoop up Sans and jumped to the side as Gaster once again leapt forward. “I WOULD NEVER FORGET SANS! I COULDN’T!”

“We’ll see about that.” Gaster chuckled and shook his head at the two brothers. “The only person who will remember S4 is me, and it will be far from a pleasant memory.”

“you know,” Sans mumbled, sighing as he leaned back, against Papyrus’ hold. “you’ve done a lot to me. hurt me, broken me, both literally and metaphorically, whatever, but...” he shook his head. “you said yourself i’ve still got a little bit of hope left in me.”

It happened in a blur. Strong arms shoved Papyrus away, the tallest of the three letting out a soft gasp of surprise and falling away from his brother. Sans landed on his legs and his eye exploded the brightest it ever had, hand shooting forward and engulfing Gaster’s soul in...wait. 

Sans eyes widened when he realized Gaster’s soul wasn’t in his chest. In fact, it was a blue, clean slate - there was nothing there. Nothing at all. 

“My soul is in the void, remember?” Gaster laughed at the shocked look on Sans face, but said look melted away in the matter of seconds and was replaced with relative bliss, a look of realization and contentment. 

“yeah, that’s right, but you also said you were weak, so i’m willing to guess that you don’t have enough magic to grab my soul like that again. too bad you didn’t control your anger better, hm?” He twisted his hand in an upwards motion and watched as the bones shot up from the ground, smirking when Gaster stumbled. 

“Watching you the first time you taught the kid...” Gaster said slowly, still smirking. Always smirking. “It was fun. The most entertainment I’ve had in a while, actually.”

“you weren’t scared that maybe all of your precious work that you slaved over was gone?”

“Not at all.” Gaster’s answer was immediate. Sans chuckled. 

“wow, you really radiate love.”

“It is impossible to love things.” He waited, seemingly expecting some pleasant, optimistic retort from Papyrus about how his brother was ‘A SOUL, NOT A THING!’. It never came, and he dismissed it and kept his eyes trained on the hunched boy in front of him. 

“you’ve said that quite a few times.” Sans laughed and shook his head, hands shoved in his pockets as he avoided yet another swipe forward from Gaster. This was exactly like the fight with the brat, just without the knife - Gaster was obviously attempting to get as close as possible. Perhaps he could grab a hold of Sans soul once he was close enough? Using magic from a distance did take up a bit more energy than it did when using it up close. 

No matter the reason, Sans wasn’t willing to get close to this guy. Papyrus was still here, and Sans knew that a life with someone as unstable as Gaster would really, really hurt Papyrus. Besides, all Gaster needed to do was land a 1 HP hit in, and Sans was done for. In theory, no magic was needed - just a good slap, maybe. 

He snapped out of his thoughts and avoided another attack. Sadly, he definitely seemed to have gotten his avoidance skills from Gaster, because there was no doubt the scientist was good at it too - although, not as good at Sans. The issue here was that Gaster had an amazing amount of health. Sans had landed a few good hits in, but Gaster was barely down a fourth of his health. 

And if he did kill Gaster, what would happen then? Would they just go back to the lab, or would they be stuck here? He still didn’t even know where ‘here’ was. 

He was thinking too much. He had to focus on the task at hand. 

“I can see the cogs moving in your head.” Gaster grinned. His voice seemed to be growing deeper - lower, and angrier. Sans wasn’t sure if that was to scare him, or because the other was growing weak. He hoped for the second. “You are very intelligent, S4.”

“got it from the best.” Sans grunted through dodges and attacks. Gaster laughed. 

“Even though you were far from a success, I must...begrudgingly...thank you.”

This caught Sans a little off guard, head shooting up with eyes full of confusion and wonder. He almost immediately realized that must have been what Gaster wanted, because he just narrowly avoided the man’s outstretched hand grabbing the side of his sweatshirt. 

“i didn’t think you could thank ‘things’.” He mocked, the anger bubbling forward in his voice undeniable. 

“You took care of my son. You weren’t programmed to, but if I had fallen into the void without the prompting of you, and you had decided to leave him, Papyrus would have died. He survived because of what...your actions.” He seemed like he wanted to say something else, but reworded himself halfway through. 

“i’m proud of ya, doc.” Sans chuckled softly. “must’ve taken a lot out of ya to say.” Bones rocketed up around Gaster’s feet, and Sans noted with a relieved sort of cheer within his soul that Gaster’s health went down much more that time than in the past. He must have been growing weaker. “that’s good”, he thought. “i can use that”. 

“Perhaps I don’t - PAPYRUS!” Halfway through Gaster’s statement, he shot his eyes to the side, alarm and fear filling them as he reached out his arm, as if desperate to stop whatever was about to happen. 

Sans’ body moved on it’s own accord. He whipped himself around and held out his hands, magic ready to grab Papyrus’ soul and keep him safe for whatever was happening. 

Nothing stood where Gaster was looking, and seconds too late, Sans realized his mistake. A hand gripped the back of his hood and he was forced to turn around, Gaster inches away from his face and staring into his eyes with a cold, dead expression. 

“that was a low blow.” Sans laughed, voice halfway between a submissive laugh and a defensive growl. 

Gaster smiled. For once, it seemed genuine, in a twisted, terrifying sort of way. He knew he was close to his goal. “Maybe. Or maybe you‘re just weak.”

Blue illuminated the area around them as his eye began to explode into licking flames, his magic consuming his soul and reaching out towards Sans. Long, whispy tendons wrapped around the pale blue heart, a deep laugh echoing through the area in reaction to the way Sans’ face scrunched up in pain and discomfort. The tendons began to squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze, and Sans was positive he was about to explode into as many pieces as Gaster was shattered into. At the same time, he felt a tugging, a tugging down, a tugging towards an unknown. 

This was it. He had fought for so long, gone through so much - and this was where he was going to die. But he wasn’t even allowed a luxury such as death - he was going to be thrown into a place where he remembers, where he has to watch his baby brother be happy without him, forget him. 

He let out a weak and tear-filled laugh that didn’t even come close to reaching his eyes. After all he had done, the universe didn’t even think he deserved death. 

He didn’t even get to say goodbye to Papyrus. He wanted to say it now, to whisper it even though he knew his brother wouldn’t hear, to finally say ‘i love you’ to make up for all those times he had been too stubborn or lazy to. But even his vocal chords had given up on him. He couldn’t say a word. 

The grip tightened, and Sans screwed his eyes closed, waiting for the pain that would no doubt consume him and take away everything he loved. 

He was sorry for not doing more to save Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I Am So Bad At Posting!!!!
> 
> There’s genuinely only one chapter left, though, and I SWear I’ll upload it this week! The release of Deltarune has got me revved lmao
> 
> I wanna reiterate that, quite frankly, this is barely considered a finished story. It has an ending, yet there are a lot of small discrepensies where I lacked to go back in and edit or alter details. I wrote it completely with plans to go back and revise around last January, but I honestly have absolutely zero motivation or time to do so. I hope to do it at some point, but I didn’t just want to drop the story as a whole or shove it somewhere to be forgotten, so I’m still posting it with it’s faults. So, if you see something and you’re like “but that goes against x that the story established earlier!” That’s probably why and my apologies!
> 
> Once again, this story is MASSIVELY based on Handplates and the comic Time Scar! Go uhhhh read those please

**Author's Note:**

> wow an Undertale fanfic in 2018 look @ that
> 
> This is only chapter one of many! Idk the exact number yet but it is fully written and edited, so updates will come every 3-4 days. 
> 
> The rest of the chapters will probably be a considerable amount shorter than this one - this one is just so long because breaking it up in the middle would’ve been awkward and difficult to make flow right, so I just decided to lump it all together. 
> 
> If you enjoy, please leave a kudo’s & comment, & check out the rest of my work! 


End file.
